Kantai Collection: New Friends, New World
by Thorthemighty321
Summary: Several Allied Destroyer Girls are fleeing from Abyssal Forces after a disastrous battle. The CO of the squadron American Destroyer Girl Walker formerly USS Walker DD-163, leads Mahan DD-102, Fubuki, and Mutsuki into a squall. After they exit, they discover that they are no longer on the Earth they know for Fubuki and Mutsuki at least. How will they adapt to this new world?
1. Prolouge

**A/N: Consider this an experiment. This story will be a crossover between Kantai Collection and Taylor Anderson's The Destroyermen Series; before you say why is this not a Crossover I couldn't find anything for Taylor Anderson's Book Series.**

 **This has never been done before however I do enjoy both greatly so maybe I can make an effective crossover as well. I also don't own anything.**

 **IMPORTANT NOTICE: I am going to be rewriting the first chapters to correct all of the grammar errors and expand upon the chapters. Also my headcanon with Kanmusu in general is that when they aren't in their rigging, they are more squishy than when they are in their rigging. That said when out of their rigging they are a lot tougher than a normal human to a degree but it depends of classification.**

* * *

 _June 14th, 2030; 1645 Hours_

 _Surabaya, Java_

Mutsuki ran for her life, all around her the sounds of war echoed around her. Gunfire, the shriek of rockets, thunderous explosions, barked orders, shouted battle cries, and the screams of the wounded and dying.

The Abyssals had come out of nowhere and where now hitting the base hard with infantry and light armor. All of this just thirty-six hours after the battle that had put the final nail in the coffin for the time being around the Java Sea area. Right now though, it was clear that Surabaya was lost to the demons of the abyss which made the situation after the battle against them that had resulted in the total annihilation of the remains of the Indonesian, Myanmar, and Vietnamese navies as well as the near total annihilation of the remains of the Philippine Navy. Worse the multinational Kanmusu force composed of British, Australian, Japanese, American, and Dutch Kanmusu had their numbers savaged by disaster and bad luck.

"Run for it! Go! Go!" Witte de With screamed as they ran around a corner as fast as they could.

"I am going as fast as I can!" Mutsuki cried as finally salvation came into view. The docks, if they could just get to them, they could don their rigging and finally get away from this hellhole and to safety that was either Darwin or Perth-Fremantle.

Just as they sprinted past what had been one of the cafes on base. The distinctive, trumpeting battlecry of an Abyssal Wo-type infantry officer rang in front of them as it tossed a deceased Indonesian Army trooper aside, that had been impaled on the end of it's cane sword. It was huge, easily seven feet tall and had purple-eyes that seemingly blazed with righteous anger as it leveled it's iron hard gaze on them, the angular armor that protected her upper body was this dark goldenrod color and was accented by glowing malachite lines of energy that formed vague circuit board esque patterns, the four swept back crystals on it's hat were midnight blue and subtly glowing with power, and finishing off the assemblage was it's Imperial Red cape that hung from it's shoulders to roughly halfway down it's thighs.

"CHAMPION LEADER, don't stop!" Mutsuki yelled in terror and Witte didn't need any prompting in the face of something wielding cane sword and had the strength to wrestle most Capital Ship Kanmusu into submission.

The two destroyer girls tried to sprint around the threat. But then the thing moved with stunning speed and whacked Mutsuki hard in the chest with the flat of it's sword, there was a set sickening _cracks_ as ribs broke under the hammering impact. Mutsuki explosively exhaled from the blow and was knocked off her feet, landing on the concrete with a loud thud, her vision went blurry as her head smacked hard on the cement. Groaning and groggy she shook her head, slowly her vision cleared and she promptly gulped with fear for planted firmly on her stomach was the Wo's black combat boot. She looked up into its face and it grinned, a smirk that sent a shiver of mortal fear rocketing down Mutsuki's spine at the sight.

The Wo leveled it's cane sword at her chest and she knew she was about to die. She didn't have the durability to survive becoming a destroyer kish-khab when stabbed through the heart. At least she hoped it was relatively painless. Suddenly a young sharp voice bellowed "Verras kankerkut!" and then Witte de With tackled the Abyssal soldier right off of her allowing her to sit up and take several deep and painful breaths.

The Abyssal snarled as both of them crashed to the ground and they both recovered quickly. Witte whipped out her preferred melee weapon from somewhere, a Naval Dirk. She unsheathed the short blade and lunged at the Wo with a roar, her blade aiming for it's chest. The Abyssal backhanded the Dutch destroyer girl and knocked her to the ground with a painful sounding thud and her Dirk flew out of her hand clattering to the ground several feet away from her.

Witte quickly scrambled to her feet dodged several strikes from the Abyssal's sword, then lunged for her Drik and scooped it up. She swung around on her heel and then her eyes widened with pain and shock as the Abyssal's cane sword sliced upward, carving a deep and bloody gash upward from just below her navel up across her chest, through the right side of the chest slicing through meat and bone with ease before finally erupting up through her right clavicle in a large spray of thick oily blood.

She staggered in pain and struggled to stay up on her feet, her balance was unsteady. Blood poured down her front, thoroughly soaking her dirted white naval uniform in a matter of moments. Her gaze landed on Mutsuki and although Witte's iron grey eyes while they were beginning glaze over from blood loss and shock, she somehow managed to say one sentence the words sounding wet "Mutsuki," a painful sounding gasp emanated from her before she finished speaking "run for it.". Then it become too much and her eyes completely glazed over and she collapsed in a bloody lifeless heap.

Mutsuki scrambled her to feet turned to towards the dock and _bolted_. Not that it mattered, she only managed to run for only a couple of seconds before a tremendous force smashed into left shoulder blade. She spun to the ground from the force of the blow, scraping her left thigh and arm across the gritty concrete. It sent stinging pain jabbing up her thigh and arm. She shook her head, came to her hands and knees in an attempt to stand when pain erupted in her back as the Wo buried it's blade in her back.

A long strangled scream of pain tore away from her throat and she collapsed to the ground and struggled to catch her breath as the Abyssal promptly planted it's boot on the small of her back. The pain in her midsection was absolutely blinding and then the pain doubled as the blade was brutally twisted and then yanked out. Leaving her gasping and stuttering for breath and then suddenly there was a loud thundering _bang_ followed by a thud.

She looked over her shoulder and through the tears that had welled up in her eyes from the pain and what she saw shocked her. The Wo was dead, a large hole occupying where one of its eyes had been that was probably a half-inch in diameter and the back half of it's head was completely _gone_ with blood, bone, and brain matter scattered for easily dozens of feet behind the Abyssal Company commander.

 _W-w-what? B-b-but who could've shot that thing?_ Mutsuki thought stunned at what had happened before she heard the sounds of running footsteps which caused her to whip her head around to behold a new sight, one that caused her heart to leap into her throat with joy and happiness for running to her aid was another Kanmusu, an American _Wickes_ class Kanmusu.

To her knowledge there was only two of those practically ancient girls on base, both being only slightly younger than Kongō was in terms of actual age, in terms of actual appearance they both appeared to be nine or ten years old and were both about four feet nine inches tall. Like all _Wickes_ class Kanmusu she wore the distinctive uniform of the American Expeditionary Force from World War I, at her waist was a heavy scabbard that contained a heavy Naval Academy Saber instead of the usual Pattern 1917 Naval Cutlass that most _Wickes_ class Kanmusu preferred to carry, while slung over her shoulder was a rifle of some type and stuck in a holster was a Browning M1911A1 pistol. The bronze doughboy helmet that was perched on her head while slightly battered proudly bore the rate number in white outlined in black so that the owner could be easily identified, in this case it was '163', that meant this was Walker. Her green eyes beheld tons of worry and moderate relief as she hurried to where Mutsuki was.

The fellow destroyer girl crouched beside her and glanced at her stab wound; a grimace found its way across her face at the sight. "Can you move? Also where's Witte?" she asked.

"I think so, not entirely sure. As for Witte, she's dead." Mutsuki replied as she struggled to her feet and almost immediately became dizzy and nearly lost her footing. But Walker caught her before she fell and steadied her. Mutsuki then glanced at the wound in her gut and became queasy, it was a wound she could survive but it was going to hurt like hell until it did heal.

"Right, let's get to the docks. Don the rigging and then bug the fuck out. We need to de-ass Surabaya, again." Walker snarled angrily and it caused Mutsuki to remember that Walker hated being run-off and thus was simmering with anger for it occurring, again. Regardless however, Mutsuki was grateful that Walker had come to her aid.

"Whose left to flee?" Mutsuki asked as they started as quickly as they could towards the docks. But with the stab wound in her gut, she wouldn't be able to run as fast as she normally could, thus forcing them to jog.

Walker tilted her head and looked thoughtful for a moment before answering. "Just yourself, me, Mahan, Fubuki, Pope, Encounter, and Exeter. However at the moment only Exeter and Encounter have their rigging on, but when I left Fubuki was suiting up. Mahan, and Pope haven't even suited up yet, mainly because they are covering entrance to the docks so we don't get cut off from our escape route." she replied.

"Why did you come out and rescue me though?" Mutsuki asked they got ever closer to the docks.

"I did that the moment I saw you and Witte get jumped by that Champion Leader." Walker said simply and then her satellite phone began buzzing. She pulled it out and glanced at it before answering the call. "Walker here, what is it Exeter?" she said.

Mutsuki didn't hear what Exeter had to say and she had to focus on maintaining her balance anyway. Thus when Walker swore and said "Why didn't you spot those fuckers sooner?" she got worried.

"How long?" Walker replied to something Exeter said and judging by how her expression changed whatever the response had been wasn't good. "Alright thanks." she said before hanging up and looking at her. "Can you run?" Walker asked.

"I dunno, maybe for a short sprint." Mutsuki answered and Walker scowled.

"Alright, ready?" Walker asked and Mutsuki nodded. "GO!" she shouted and both Kanmusu sprinted for the docks. Together they managed to cover the four hundred twenty five meters between themselves and that location in thirty-four seconds flat. They burst into the room and instantly were staring down the barrels of two M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifles, but the moment the wielders saw who they were they relaxed.

"Thank Christ! It's you!" Mahan said as she lowered her BAR.

"Yeah it's me, listen Witte didn't make it. A Wo-type practically disemboweled her but I managed to save Mutsuki though, killed the goddamned Wo too before it could really ruin Mutsuki's night." Walker replied.

"Nice work Walker! I am going to try and get you decorated for that hair-brained stunt that you did." Pope hooted.

Mahan smiled. "That's my sister." she said lightly.

Walker beamed slightly in response.

"Let's get our rigging on and split." Pope said with a smile and together they moved out, in order to don their rigging and escape.

* * *

 _Ten hours later_

 _Somewhere in the Java Sea_

Walker's legs ached with pain as her turbines pushed her battered hull forward at a speed of twenty-five knots. The previous battle that had decisively beaten them only forty-six hours previously was still fresh in her mind for the simple reason that she was suffering a case of deja vu. Just like another situation that was incredibly similar to this one, seventy years ago. They had been soundly beaten and were now trying to runaway, limping would probably be more accurate actually. Hard to believe that there numbers had been reduced to just seven and that the implacable Abyssal juggernaut had thoroughly beaten them.

She shook the unpleasant memories of 2nd Java Sea off and focused at the task at hand, which at the moment right now was simply surviving. She looked over the force that was trying to get to safety. It wasn't much, just one Heavy Cruiser and screening her ravaged flanks were six destroyers. Plus all of them were nursing damage to some degree, from solemn Mutsuki who had her aft stack cleaved in half as well as Mount two knocked out and about five or six holes above the waterline to poor old Exeter who had taken a savage kicking from the Demons of the Abyss with the vast majority of her AA-guns destroyed, her seaplane catapults wrecked, and could just barely make twenty-five knots.

But she knew that somewhere behind them was the enemy, at least one Heavy Cruiser that was in a merciless pursuit. High above them, flitting just out of range of their anemic anti-aircraft defenses was a nightmare black floatplane; likely alerting every Abyssal in range of it's radio, which meant they had noose around their neck and it was more than likely steady tightening. Sooner or later it would get tight enough that once the Abyssals kicked whatever they were standing on, that the noose would snap their necks, or in other words they would all be dead.

"Are we going to make it?" Mutsuki asked in low tone that Walker barely heard.

Pope looked at her with sympathy, she didn't know what it was like to get run down by a hostile force with no chance to escape from them. Regardless however, when she spoke to her; Pope kept her voice in a tone reassuring. "We'll make it, the bastards know that if they come at us with a single Cruiser that they'll eat an Oxygen Torpedo and that _always_ ends in disaster for cruisers!" she said with a predatory growl and Mutsuki's mood brightened.

"Really?" she asked hopefully.

"It sure does, the Type 93 torpedo is incredibly lethal. It'll have no problems blowing the guts out of an enemy warship. Plus the Abyssals aren't stupid, well most of the time." Pope replied.

"What do you mean that Abyssals aren't stupid most of the time? I've seen them do some pretty stupid things. Like trying to go head-to-head with a battleship and two Heavy Cruisers with only Light Cruisers that don't have torpedoes." Mahan quipped.

Walker despite how jittery and anxious she was feeling, laughed out loud. She remembered that operation, the Abyssals had gone full blown Grik (or as many would call it, going full on Leeroy Jenkins) when they had been ambushed by a force involving herself, Mahan, Pope, Stewart, Prince of Wales, Houston, Perth, Boise, Exeter, as well as the Japanese Destroyer Division Six. The enemy's only Cruiser division decided that it would be a good idea to zerg rush Prince of Wales, Boise, Houston, Perth, and Exeter, which went about as well as one would expect when six light cruisers with no torpedoes attacked a group of Kanmusu with much heavier firepower and armor.

At that moment though, it changed when Exeter spoke the words that they'd all been dreading to hear ever since they had first tried to make it to the Sunda Strait, only to get a strangled message from Perth and Houston as they were torn apart by the demons. Which had forced them to double-back at which point they'd picked up a trail. "Enemy in sight!"

"Force composition?" Pope asked nervously.

Exeter chuckled drily. "Two _Ne_ class Heavy Cruisers, accompanied by at least two destroyers, unknown classification." She replied.

"Should we make smoke ma'am?" Encounter asked wearily.

"Not yet, lure them in a little closer." Exeter stated eyeing the monstrosities. Their nightmare black wave-piercing hulls was rushing forward after them. An absolutely tremendous bone in her teeth as they raced to get in range.

Then they heard it, a muffled _wha-boom_ followed by a panicked cry from Mahan. "The enemy's opened fire!"

Moments later there was a howling screech that set everyone's hair on end, followed by twelve tremendous darkly colored plumes of spray erupting around them. "Jesus, here we go!" Walker breathed as Exeter's aft turret twitched and then rose.

"Turret X! Commence _firing!_ " Exeter roared and a moment later her stern was completely enveloped in a dark brownish-grey cloud of gunsmoke as that turret spat defiance at the enemy.

More plumes erupted, they were trying to focus down Exeter. Understandable, she was the only one would could hope to fight them on relatively even terms and not to mention, if the Cruiser bought it then the destroyers would lose their will to fight. Thing was that Exeter seemed to know it too and X-turret roared it's defiance much quicker than it normally did as more shells fell around her.

On the horizon, a bright flash suddenly erupted and one of the Abyssals exploded violently as one of Exeter's shells munched through steel and chitin with extreme ease and found a magazine. "Hell yeah! How do like _that_ , you sons of bitches!" Exeter whooped gleefully at the sight of the enemy warship getting eviscerated.

Apparently the remaining Abyssal Cruiser _didn't_ like having it's friend blown up. For an eight-inch shell slammed into Exeter and exploded, causing the British Heavy Cruiser Kanmusu to swear loudly.

"You alright?!" Encounter asked fearfully.

"Oh I am peachy! That hit took out my last 4in gun! I am officially totally helpless from the air!" Exeter snarled and her 8in guns voiced their wrath angrily, but despite that the number of splashes that were near constantly bracketing her was absurd.

Every now and again their would be a loud _crunch_ followed by Exeter cursing while her guns kept up the spirited fire at the monsters. But it couldn't last forever because sooner or later the Abyssals would score a crippling hit and Walker knew it, as did Exeter.

"Girls" the Heavy Cruiser said. "Make smoke astern, let's try and throw off their aim shall we?" she added.

"Yes ma'am!" The destroyers all chorused and they promptly maneuvered quickly and effectively behind Exeter. Raw fuel oil gushed into their exhausts and rapidly they began producing a thick black pall that rapidly expanded till it appeared to block out the entire horizon with impenetrable smoke cloud.

Walker threw a glance over her shoulder and grinned broadly. "I don't know about you lot, but seeing that? Blocking out the horizon with a smokescreen always gives me a hoot." she said.

Mahan giggled. "Tell me about it! Makes you feel like you can do absolutely _anything_!"

Encounter rolled her eyes. "Bloody hell you two; the endless the banter between you do is nothing short of optimistic, I swear to fucking god." she snarled.

"Oh lay off of them Encounter, they're both good ships to be around. Besides I know you get a hoot out of laying smokescreens." Pope said and Encounter blushed slightly.

The salvoes became more sporadic, churning the water with incessant ferocity as the shells plunged into the water and exploded. Regardless it brought them time, maybe they could make for a squall and use that to open the distance. That said, the collective breath that they all seemed to have been holding had been released.

"Uh-oh! Surface target! Bearing 130! It's enemy destroyers coming through the smoke! I count at least four of the things!" Fubuki barked.

" _Dammit!_ Alright, here we go! Screen Exeter's flank, assume line ahead formation! Execute!" Pope barked and as one the Kanmusu maneuvered expertly, quickly and effortlessly forming a battle line as seven Abyssal destroyers, each with a flush deck, a plumb bow, three saimsed funnels just aft of a pilothouse, one twin gun turret forward and three single gun turrets aft, and two quadruple torpedo launchers rushed onwards out of the smoke screen with a tremendous bone in their teeth. Their portholes glowed a sickly malachite green while their hulls were a color that was a terrible mixture of nightmare black and carmine, indicating that they were Elites.

"Range estimate?!" Mutsuki asked in a nervous tone as she eyed the enemy warships, _Ha_ class Destroyers with a thunderously angry glare.

"Estimate 14,5-double-00!" Walker yelled in response.

"That can't be right! Walker I think your rangefinder suffered more damage than you thought at Java Sea." Mutsuki exclaimed in surprise and shock.

"I am sure of it!" Walker snapped.

"We'll run with it! Commence firing!" Pope yelled and then seemingly as one, six 10cm/65 caliber, six 102mm/50 caliber, three 127mm/51 caliber, and seven 120mm/45 caliber guns voiced their wrath.

Shell splashes erupted all around the Abyssals, drenching the monsters in plumes of water and atomized spray. One of the demons shuddered as it took several hits and black smoke, sooty steam, sparks, and fire vomited out of the ship's aft funnel. Almost instantly the monster's speed dropped from thirty-seven knots to twelve knots and the hostile destroyer quickly fell out of line crippled.

The remaining six destroyers plowed on, heedless of their loss. Four of the bastards opened fire on the destroyer kanmusu and two opened fire on Exeter. Shells shrieked and splashed around the two distinct groups of Kanmusu.

There was a loud _crump_ which was followed instantly by a pained shriek from Encounter as an Abyssal round slammed into her and exploded. She staggered from the pain that when racing across her side as the round tore her wardroom apart, a thin stream of oily blood ran down her side.

The destroyer Kanmusu fired and kept on firing. But the Abyssals returned the favor admirably and while the two Abyssals shooting at Exeter kept up their spirited barrage as they knifed ever closer to her. However they sensed blood in the water and more shell splashes began to bracket Encounter with such ferocity that the others began to see more spray and less hull.

"Put them down! Quickly! Quickly!" Mahan shouted as Encounter began to yawol with pain more and more often as she took more and more hits.

Walker's main battery fired again and this time three four-inch-fifty-caliber high-explosive shells slammed into her target with brilliant flashes of fire and smoke. - _That's it gunny! Let em have it, five rapid fire salvoes!_ \- She ordered briskly.

In response her three guns slammed out five rounds as fast as they could cycle their guns. Five plumes of water erupted around the hostile and several yellow flashes erupted along it's flanks. The thing shuddered under the hammering impacts and with a roar, a fuel bunker blew apart and sprayed burning oil all over the place and at the sametime both funnels vomited thick gritty black smoke, a brief flash of fire, sparks, and sooty steam.

The Abyssal seemingly staggered under the force of the blows and began slow, falling out of line. Moments later more shells tore through into it and one of the three aft single gun turrets was blown apart with a chest-pounding roar, then seconds later a tremendous fireball erupted aft and tossed the two remaining gunhouses clear of the ship and easily several hundred feet into air as if they were matchsticks as the stern distingreted as the ammunition store exploded.

The shots looked like they came from Encounter, something that was proven when the British Destroyer Kanmusu gave an exalted whoop of glee, before shrieking in pain as she got hit again. Her howl of agony took Walker's heart and brutally twisted it as a pair of Abyssal 130mm/50 caliber rounds plowed into her deckhouse underneath her 'B' turret, munching past the relatively thin steel with ease, and then exploding with the combined force of just over fifteen pounds of Amatol. Tearing the entire area apart in a maelstrom of fragmented steel, flames, and smoke. With the horrific sound of metal rending and breaking, the roof supporting 'B' turret collapsed in on itself. She staggered drunkenly from the agonizing pain that raced across her arm as it was effectively shattered and rendered useless.

Fubuki and Mutsuki quickly opened fire on it with their main batteries. 4.7in and 3.9in shells bracketed the Abyssal responsible for hammering her and quickly began landing hits on it. It shuddered under the force of the blows but quickly lashed out at Encounter again for it _had_ her range and it _wasn't_ going to spoil it's firing solution on her when it _could_ easily remove her from the fight.

And it did.

The British _E_ class Destroyer girl let out an unholy shriek of agony that sent chills down everyone's spine as the Abyssal destroyer slammed five shells into her, effortlessly plowing through steel with ease and detonated within. Tearing her fragile hull apart, with a hurricane roar a gout of dirty steam erupted from her deck and enshrouded her amidships and at the sametime black smoke, soot, sparks, and flames erupted from her aft funnel as her guts were decimated. Deep and bloody gashes erupted into life across the front and left side of her torso, resulting in copious amounts of thick oily blood and fuel running down her and swirling into the water. Encounter's speed dropped away, to nearly nothing as her boilers were violently blown apart. Mutsuki who was trailing behind her swore as she swung hard to port in order to avoid running headlong into Encounter's rapidly slowing from at a speed in excess of twenty knots and Fubuki swerved effortlessly to port as well to avoid Encounter.

Walker could only watch this occur over her shoulder as Encounter fell away from the formation, her guns firing constantly until she was swallowed up by the smoke screen and vanished from sight. She felt a wide variety of emotions flow through her as the _E_ class disappeared completely: sorrow, anger, helplessness, regret, and hope. Sorrow that Encounter was likely going to die a horrific death, anger that Encounter's fate was bound to be horrific and would likely involve target practice, helplessness that she couldn't do a _thing_ to prevent that fate, regret that she hadn't been able to get know the British Destroyer girl better, and hope at the fact that when Encounter finally breathed her last and slipped below that she would be reunited with her closest sister, Electra once again.

Walker changed targets, focusing on the two destroyers that were trying to get Exeter but fire from Mahan was detering them slightly and the fact that Exeter was menacing them with her forward eight-inch guns in local control. She was furious and wanted these sons of bitches to die, plain and simple! _BOOM!_ Her main battery voiced her fury and two plumes of atomized spray erupted along either side and a glorious ball of flame erupted at the base of the lead destroyer's funnel, causing the enemy DD to shudder under the force of the impact.

The two Abyssals that had been trying to get an angle on Exeter suddenly realized that the consorts who had apparently tried tangle with the destroyers had come off worse and that their torpedo run wouldn't work. They swung around and _charged_ towards the Destroyer Kanmusu, their forward guns blazing. Plumes of atomized spray erupted around them with unending ferocity as the Destroyer Kanmusu focused fire on them, Walker swung her guns on them and guns one and four bellowed their wrath and two plumes bracketed the lead destroyer.

Her guns reloaded and fired again this time both shells slammed into her target, one shell wiped out it's bridge tearing it's structure apart and the second shell punched into its forward gunhouse right under the gun barrels and promptly exploded tearing the entire structure apart in a fury of fire, smoke, and syncthing metal. With a tremendous roar a thundering gout of fire howled upward from where the gunmount had been, Walker grinned as she felt and heard the whoops of glee and the thunder of stamping feet within her hull.

"This is for Encounter you mad bloody bastards!" Exeter suddenly roared and swung hard to starboard, bringing her entire main battery of six 8in guns to bear on the destroyers at a range of less than ten thousand yards. One of the destroyers saw the threat and frantically came about to face Exeter bow on, but not fast enough for Exeter's eight-inchers roared their rage. Only two shells missed throwing two enormous plumes upward along the ship's flank and the other four shells ripped the entire midsection apart with all three funnels vomiting thick gritty black smoke, soot, fire, and sparks while steam roared out of numerous orifices and burning fuel oil was blown all over the place as they muscled past the thin steel plating that formed the thing's hull and detonated within.

The second destroyer was quickly focused by the three American Four-Piper Kanmusu and was torn apart, dying with a climatic explosion as it's forward magazine ignited and blew it's entire bow clean off, the forward speed that the thing had quickly doomed the ship for water hammering against bulkheads at thirty-seven knots were like sledgehammers.

The other two Abyssals made their own smoke and turned away. Just like that, the brief surface action was over. Exeter readjusted her course and powered away from the Abyssals. Suddenly the shell splashes that had been bracketing Exeter slacked off completely and dread surged through Walker's chest. Mainly because it meant only one thing, Encounter's time to meet her maker had finally come and she sobbed openly for the fate of her fellow destroyer girl.

"Let's press onward. Try and make for a squall and put more distance between us and them." Exeter said and together they pushed onwards. Despite everything however Walker couldn't help but look back towards where Encounter had most likely wallowed to a stop, the thick black pall between where she was and Encounter thankfully shielded her from view.

Walker resisted the urge to do something incredibly stupid as they plowed onward. "I fucking hate this. Poor Encounter, she doesn't deserve to die like that!" Walker snarled angrily as the destroyers assumed a line abreast formation behind Exeter and continuing to make smoke.

"I share your opinion, Encounter doesn't deserve to die like that, being used for _target_ _practice_ by that Abyssal Cruiser and those two Abyssal Destroyers. But we can't afford to turn around bail her out and then rig a tow. That will slow us down even more and if we come under air attack, we'll have to cut the tow lines and the attack wave wouldn't focus on maneuvering targets, even one as damaged as I am, and instead would focus on Encounter and the fact she wouldn't be able to maneuver and thus they would bomb her into a smoking ruin. A death like that would be slow and agonizing." Exeter hissed in response and Walker's body language shifted to near hostile towards the heavy cruiser and she blinked with furious rage.

"God _dammit_ Exeter! I fucking hate leaving people behind! I just fucking _hate it!_ " Walker yelled in a thunderous tone that seemed to carry a towering pillar of authority behind it. Mahan edged slightly closer to Mutsuki who was white as a ghost with mortal fear and shock clear in her eyes and Fubuki was staring in slack-jawed astonishment at the small Four-Piper because of the tirade she had unleashed and how unusual it was for her. Pope however merely sighed, she knew that Walker hated leaving people behind.

Exeter narrowed her eyes at Walker and said in a low and threatening voice. "Walker, your out of line. If we get out of this alive, consider yourself on report and expect to get hauled before the Captain's Mast."

Pope then spoke up. "I'll gladly accept any punishment you have in store for Walker ma'am. We've all been run ragged and because of her past, Walker hates leaving people behind." she said.

Walker blinked apologetically and she visibly relaxed but her body language indicated that she was ashamed of herself, still that was one thing that had always befuddled the British Heavy Cruiser and just about every other Kanmusu that had worked with Walker and Mahan was the fact that in addition to body language, eye blinks also played a large part in silent communication. "Sorry ma'am. It's just I can't stand leaving people behind, the 2nd Battle of the Java Sea and The Loss of _Nerracca_. Never again. I hate leaving people behind, not unless I can do something to prevent it." Walker replied in a low somber tone.

"I can understand 2nd Java Sea. But what the hell was The Loss of _Nerracca_?" Exeter asked, it wasn't an angry tone but more curious.

Walker tensed up again immediately and she quivered almost imperceptibly. Memories flooded her mind, an enormous three-masted wooden sailing ship the size of an _Essex_ class Fleet Carrier, burning as she was pounded from an impossibly far distance by 10in/45 caliber Naval Rifles, flames roaring hundred of feet into air consuming her and the screams of mortal terror and pain from the thousands of people who were still aboard as well as the ship's soul. "You don't want to know, it's just something awful okay." she said in a weak tone.

"Right, your going to be explaining what the Loss of _Nerracca_ was to me after we get to safety." Exeter replied in a firm tone that brokered no room for negotiation.

"Exeter, would it be alright if I accompany Walker while we explain _Nerracca_? It's a very touchy subject for her." Mahan said, less question and more statement.

"Count me in too. I am her XO and only Peary her CO knew the full extent of Walker's past, which is something that I would like to learn very much." Pope added.

"Alright." Exeter said.

The day wore on and while they managed to put some considerable distance between themselves and the Abyssals. Not to mention dotting the horizon now were squalls; some were tantalizing close but others were just beginning to form. If they could get into one then it was possible that they could escape.

Walker's turbines ached in pain and she was exhausted. The last time that she had been pushed this hard had been in the months leading up to the Battle of Baalkpan or the Battle of Formosa Strait or the Battle of the Bone River and of course during those battles as well. It had however been the first time since this new chance at life had begun for her that she had been pushed this hard.

Regardless she had to suck it up and keep going, regardless of pain. "Surface target! Surface target! Bearing 034! Range, dammit, best guess is 21,5-double-00! Enemy force is one Heavy Cruiser at least with probably a single _Na_ class Destroyer Leader." Fubuki said and everyone else swore sharply.

Mutsuki glanced at her watch and swore again. After the loss of Encounter, they had continued onward for several hours afterward and she had been hoping that the Abyssals would be too distracted by the cripple. While their original pursuers had probably lost their scent, they had obviously succeeded in alerting their comrades. Which were now racing to intercept them to dash any hope of escape.

"Cease making smoke! It'll make you a harder target!" Exeter ordered sharply and as one the destroyer girls ceased making smoke.

The two Abyssal Heavy Cruisers were spaced about 1000 yards apart. Together their forward triple turrets each one mounting three 20.3cm/60 caliber SK C/34 naval guns twitched and then traversed towards them.

Exeter traversed her forward guns and she got the first salvo out faster than the Abyssals thanks to her Type 284 Gun Fire Control Radar. The thundering over pressure pounded in their chests, while the heaving roar assaulted their ears, and the gun blasts blew great craters into the water. Moments later the Abyssals retaliated with their own fire and a howling shriek rent the air as the shells screamed in. Six enormous plumes of water erupted around Exeter in a tight bracket while six more shells landed in a wider spread.

Moments later three glorious plumes of water erupted around the lead Abyssal Heavy Cruiser and it violently shuddered under the force of a hammering blow but the ship didn't slow.

The Abyssals retaliated with more shells and four plumes erupted around Exeter and she shrieked with pain as her 'B' turret took a penetrating hit and was blasted apart with such force that one of the gun barrels snapped like twig.

"Shit! Walker and Mahan with me! We're going to make smoke and screen Exeter! Assume Echelon formation! Mutsuki and Fubuki on my signal you'll make a torpedo attack!" Pope snarled.

"Yes ma'am!" All of the destroyers voiced and once again a thick black pall erupted from their funnels. Quickly blocking Exeter from view and thus providing some protection from the Abyssals, however the British Heavy Cruiser ceased firing.

"What's wrong Exeter?" Fubuki asked nervously.

"I can't throw that much steel down range. 'B' turret is out of commission and I don't want to push my luck too much because of that. Fubuki, Mutsuki after you launch torpedoes we're going to make a course change to the south east and start bugging out." Exeter replied.

"Yes ma'am!" The two Japanese Destroyers chorused.

Once again the near constant plumes of water that were bracketing Exeter slacked off as the Abyssals lost sight of their quarry. But it never slacked off entirely, for occasionally ranging salvoes would ravage the water and the spray was thoroughly soaking all of the Kanmusu. If anything the Abyssals seemed to be walking the fire up and down smoke screen. Obviously trying to hit the destroyers.

Swearing Exeter barked more orders as she took another hit, the round plowing through armor and hull with ease before detonating, eviscerating her chain locker. As one the Kanmusu turned to bearing 320 towards a mighty squall and Exeter opened fire with her with her 'A' and 'X' turrets as they ran in a northerly direction.

The squall they were making a beeline for was less than three miles away. It was a massive dark grey foreboding thing that excluded an air of safety for the Kanmusu. Which the various Kanmusu were grateful, for it gave them the chance to escape, and thus they would take it. More shells were shrieking in and enormous plumes of dyed water were erupting around them.

Just before they reached the squall however Exeter's 'A' turret fell silent. As the guns in that turret could no longer be brought to bear on her opponents. Shells continued to fall around them and then disaster struck.

It was something brief, it happened so quick that Walker thought it had been a trick of the light. A small flash appeared on Pope's amidships deckhouse and then with a heaving roar a sheet of flame was vomited upward, burning globs of fuel was thrown everywhere, while three of her four slender funnels vomited flames, smoke, soot, sparks, and steam upward with a thundering rattling _roar_. Fire rapidly began to engulf her amidships deckhouse and she shrieked in agony as her two firerooms were utterly annihilated.

The effect on Pope's speed was almost immediate. Her forward speed dropped from a blistering twenty-five knots or so to a nearly helpless seven knots. Walker seeing her friend and DesDiv executive officer begin to fall behind tried to go after her. But Pope seeing her beginning to maneuver away from the formation to come after her and probably rig a tow, but she knew that it was suicidal.

"Walker, don't even _think_ about coming after me!" Pope roared over the radio and to her eternal gratitude the _Wickes_ class corrected her course. Swinging back around to come onto her previous heading, but a moment later her voice reached Pope's radio room.

" _But you'll die XO! I can't in good conscious abandon you!_ " Walker yelled obviously wishing to come about and save her.

"You do that Walker and you'll die as well or at the very least get crippled. I won't allow it as your superior officer, it's my responsibility to ensure the safety of those under my command. Even if it means ordering those under my command to escape even though it means I won't." Pope said, ignoring the searing pain that was in her back from the flames that were blazing across her decks as well as the blood loss from the gaping wounds in her torso.

" _But Pope! I watched you die during the 2nd Battle of Java Sea. I don't want to lose you again!_ " Walker said fearfully, a barely noticeable stutter in her voice.

"I am sorry Walker, listen. I am sorry, but if you escape to live another day. It will allow me to die happy, just _go_! That's a goddamned order!" Pope barked sharply, it was going to be the last order she would ever give.

" _B-b-but,_ " Walker stuttered before stopping and taking an audible deep breath before continuing, her voice steadying. " _Wilco, goodbye Pope and God bless._ " she said.

 _Thanks my friend. The knowledge that your going to live is good enough for me._ Pope thought with relief coursing through her as she glared at the enemy as they approached her.

Then her eyes widened instinctively as she had the forward six guns pointed right at her. The maws of the Abyssal guns gaped at her like something Walker had explained as a "Gri-Kakka". The barrels aligned and then they flashed, with a hellacious roar the guns discharged and she actually _saw_ the malignant shells streaking towards her glinting black in the afternoon sun.

Seven enormous plumes of water erupted around her and five shells hit; the pain was unbearable as they exploded within her hull. With a heaving _whoomp_ , her bottom blew out painfully. She let out a horrific screech of agony and fell to her hands and knees, thick currents of oily blood flowed from her wounds and mixed with the water creating interesting swirls in the water. Her hull shifted violently and groaned, causing her to fall onto her side bringing her face to the water's surface. It lapped at her and with a great rush of air that escaped her shattered hull and with an unavoidable finality the water closed over her head and she slowly descended further and further from the surface thus as a consequence closer to the bottom and her grave, a swirl of bubbles surrounded her for a moment, blocking her vision before clearing and revealed something beautiful. Pope couldn't help but be amazed at the effects that the sun had on the water below the surface. Then blood swirled up in front of her and tinted her vision dark red and it got very dark, followed by nothing.

* * *

Walker was relieved when she plowed head long into the squall right behind Fubuki but before Mutsuki did. The reason she was relieved about entering the squall was because no one would be able to see her tears. She wept openly at the death of her Destroyer Division Executive Officer, Pope had been a very close and good friend.

Thus she was surprised when Mahan called her over the Talk-Between-Ships or TBS. " _Walker, how are you holding up?_ " she asked, the rain audible in the background as it pounded on their hulls and soaked them to the bone.

"Not well sister. Pope was a good friend and practically a sister. We've been through so much together and now she's gone." Walker replied with a sniffle.

" _I understand that, but we need you Walker. Your one hell of a fighter and we need one hell of a fighter right now._ " Mahan said soothingly.

The rain continued pounding her hull and she thought deeply. "Was I this much of a mess after Pope was sunk during 2nd Java Sea?" Walker asked weakly.

" _To a degree, but you were more mad than anything._ " Mahan said in a calm and soothing tone. Walker sighed as she remembered that fact and despite herself she knew that not only was she angry as hell but also completely terrified.

"True, but Pope had been an excellent friend and comrade." Walker said as she stared straight ahead.

" _Believe me, I know. Pope was the one who helped me improve my station keeping after all and more than once she took the fall for something stupid that I had done._ " Mahan replied in a nostalgic tone.

"True, very true. I can't help but agree. I am going to miss her." Walker said quietly before shaking herself. She couldn't distracted by mourning for her friend and superior officer. It would just end poorly for her and likely those around her, plus she wouldn't be able to live with herself if her being distracted by Pope's death resulted in someone dying.

They remained in the squall for as long as possible, but eventually Walker couldn't see any places that were darker than the rest indicating heavier rain. That wasn't a good thing, for it meant that either the squall was dissipating or they were exiting the damn thing. She wished that this break from running away as fast as possible from certain death would last longer. But unfortunately that wasn't going to happen. "Exeter, this is Walker. I am exiting the squall!" she said.

" _Affirmative Walker._ " Exeter barked.

The sunlight dazzled her as her slender hull knifed out of the squall and the rain that was splattered across her decks glistened in the light. She looked to her right and saw Mutsuki's distinct hull come plowing out of the squall before seemingly shaking itself like a dog. The poor girl had taken an absolutely savage beating at the hands of the Abyssals, guns number four and two were a mess, she had spectacular wound in the base of her pilot house, most of her AA guns were destroyed, and her hull was somewhat riddled with holes. She blinked and their was Mutsuki, she looked unsteady on her feet and the poor girl's uniform was badly shredded, scorched, and damp with her blood. Regardless she was still had a determined if somewhat exhausted air around her, that said her left arm hung limply broken and she had a chunk about the size of her thumb taken out of the base of her neck as well as a smattering cuts and gashes across her front oozing blood.

Moments later Exeter's extremely battered hull burst out of the squall, water sluiced off her hull and swirled into the ocean. If anything the British Heavy Cruiser looked worse than Mutsuki did, her 'B' turret was a mangled ruin and her four-inch DP guns were utter wreckage as well as her few 40mm Pom-Poms and Vickers Machine Guns. The area near the smashed remains of her seaplane catapults was also fire blackened but her hull was thoroughly riddled with holes and numerous dents were all over the place.

Mahan and Fubuki appeared together and both shook themselves off of excess water. Somehow they didn't look that bad, with some holes in their hull but not many. Although Mahan had her 3in/23 caliber AA gun that had been on her fantail shot completely away but otherwise she had was fine.

"Look ma'am! Another two squalls!" Fubuki cried gesturing to a pair of squalls that were are on the horizon. One of them was a towering grey thunderhead, soaring easily twenty-thousand feet into the air and it was dumping sheets of rain.

The other squall was an absolutely _gigantic_ and magaliant thing for it soared to easily fifty-five thousand feet into the sky. It had a pitch blackish-green coloring to it's clouds and brief blue flashes of light strobed within it occasionally. The thing was nearly opaque and tremendous sheets of water were being disgorged from it's belly. The thing excluded a menacing presence as if it wasn't a mere squall but something far more dangerous and mystical. For some reason however, Walker felt extremely uncomfortable gazing upon it. The thing felt familiar somehow and she wasn't sure why she felt that way about the second squall, but she just _did_. As she watched the first squall seemed to be rapidly weakening as if the second squall was absorbing the first somehow.

That's when Fubuki shouted "Holy _shit!_ " and pointed at something that was emerging from the first squall. Walker turned her gaze upon the first squall and she gulped fearfully while her heart dropped into the pit of her stomach. For emerging from the first squall, racing to prevent them from escaping to the safety of the squalls was a pair of lethal Abyssals. One was an _I_ class Destroyer Late Model Elite which wouldn't be problematic considering that they had Exeter with them, she could easily munch that thing.

But the other Abyssal was absolutely _immense_ capital ship. The two massive forward gunhouses each mounted three gigantic guns that gaped at them like an enormous predator and they were hungry to draw blood and rend steel, something they would have absolutely _no_ _trouble_ doing. It's massive germanic style aztec pyramid mast gave off a foreboding air and the thing's broad blunt bow that had a large bow wave peeling away from it's hull. The tremendous warship had a nightmare black hull, dark grey chiseled gunhouses and superstructure, the faces of the gunhouses themselves however were a bright blood red and the superstructure had angry slashes of the color, the few viewing ports that the hull and superstructure contained glowed an pantone orange, and finally along the waterline was what appeared to be teeth the shone bone white.

Almost as one the destroyer Kanmusu all gasped in shock and fear. Exeter however didn't do that instead she brought a powerful pair of binoculars to her face and gazed at the two Abyssal warships. Her mouth became a tight line grimace as she analyzed the huge capital ship. Finally she lowered her binoculars and spoke in the tone of someone delivering a death sentence, all but confirming the sinking dread that all of the Kanmusu had in the pit of their stomach. "That ladies is an Abyssal Battleship Water Demon, the absolute epitome of the Battleship."

She chuckled darkly. "That thing doesn't even need the help of the other Abyssals. It can take us all by itself, that thing's armor is immune to my eight-inch guns even at point-blank range. That said it's very vulnerable to torpedoes, it's great length and tonnage puts an incredible detriment on it's maneuverability." the Heavy Cruiser said.

The massive battleship began to heel over and it's tremendous turrets swung towards them. It's stern flicking out as it revealed it's aft turrets till finally they had no less than twelve 51cm/50 caliber naval rifles, each capable of hurling an Armor-Piercing Capped Projectile weighing 4,500 pounds some thirty-eight kilometers and they were capable of decimating nearly anything with ease thanks to their massive bursting charge of ninety pounds of explosive, and they were pointing right at them, the maws of the great guns looking all the world like some ferocious predator. It's monstrous secondary battery that could bear was composed of seven quadruple Model 1932 130mm/45 caliber Dual-Purpose turrets and five dual 15cm/55 caliber SK C/28 turrets, as well as her imposing array of 37mm/67 caliber 70-k and 25mm/60 caliber Type 96 AA/AT guns were entirely superflorious that monster didn't need them to swat them from existence and if anything they would only make the end come that much faster.

"Damn, so we got a Water Demon and a destroyer in front of us, at least two heavy cruisers and a destroyer leader behind us. No matter which way we turn we'll just be making things easier for the bastards." Fubuki said glumly.

"No," Walker said, her sorrow at Pope, Encounter, Witte, Electra, Houston, Perth, and all of the various servicemen and women she had seen die at the hands of the monsters fading away and in its place a furious white hot anger blossomed. "We can't turn back, we can't go around them, thus that leaves us with one option; we go right through those sons-of-bitches." she growled deeply.

Exeter allowed a slight smile. "I like that idea! Starboard standard rudder, come to course 035! Ahead Flank!" she ordered and as one the five greyhounds swung onto their new course and accelerated to the best of their ability.

Six miles ahead of them, the massive Battleship Water Demon finished it's turn to port and brought it's entire broadside to bear. The Abyssal Destroyer seemed to be almost hiding in the lee of the great big battleship as if it were a mere timid child. Then the gun barrels finished elevating and for several long seconds there was nothing from the battleship as it's optical gunfire control system locked down variable after variable and then it got the average. A moment later it's main battery spoke, tremendous fireballs blew great craters into the ocean and the sheet of flame thrown up made it look as if the battleship had exploded.

The enormous black shells came roaring like several thundering freight trains, Walker noted that they sounded even deeper than the 13.4-inchers that _Savoie_ had fired at her so long ago in another life on another world. Moments later the first salvo landed and hell itself clawed out of some godforsaken hole and engulfed them.

An enormous plume of spray easily eighty meters tall was thrown high into the air directly in front of Walker and the enormous detonation of the round rattled her teeth. Her guns didn't fire because her fire control party couldn't _see_ anything.

Moments later she slogged through the spray and gun number one spoke with a pathetic sounding _crack_ as the Water Demon's main guns dropped to their loading angles but the massive secondary battery spat shells at them almost continuously, stabs of fire visible all across its length; the rattling roar of incoming shells was absolutely incredible while splashes erupted around them nearly uninterrupted. That's when one of her lookouts brought something to her attention, she glanced towards Exeter even as she began weaving through the splashes and gaped in shock and horror.

The British Heavy Cruiser had been _savaged_ , a single enemy main battery shell had connected and it's tremendous bursting charge had transformed her bow from once its sleek shape into a twisted mess of steel, nearly snapping it right off. Her speed was dropping rapidly and the Cruiser's face was contorted in agony as she powered through the rough swells. With a rushing overpressure and a thunderous _boom_ , A turret spoke and two eight-inch shells shrieked towards the Battleship.

They bounced off the sixteen-inch inclined cemented armor belt with an explosion of sparks and fell piteously into the water with a pair of pathetic splashes.

The air that the battleship suddenly gave off as it's guns went to a new elevation was one of smugness. It's guns roared like a some enraged beast and amid the cacophony of shell impacts, was the sound of rending metal and even as Exeter began to shriek in agony from the 20in projectiles that had plowed through armor and steel as if they were tissue paper. Then an immense explosion equal to easily several thousand pounds worth of explosive rent the air and in an instant blew Exeter's stern apart as if it was thin sheet metal that had been on the receiving end of an C4 explosion and not solid structural steel and Krupp cemented armor; at the sametime 'X' turret was flung out of it's barbette and twenty or thirty feet into the air as if thrown by an angry god, moments later even as with a hurricane roar the boilers exploded, a massive secondary explosion erupted from Exeter amidships as her 4in/45 caliber HA/LA magazines exploded throwing a gigantic sheet of flame upwards and ready ammunition lockers for those weapons erupted like volcanos. With a terrific shriek of rending metal, the Heavy Cruiser jack-knifed and vanished beneath the surface in a matter of moments. The only sign that she had ever existed was rapidly growing slick of the thick oily blood that all Kanmusu had running in their veins. The slick reminded Walker of what would see after sinking a Mountain Fish.

"Son of a _bitch_!" Mahan roared in surprise and Walker grimaced, not from Mahan's language but from the fact that she _barely_ managed to hear it over the sounds of battle.

"Up and at them!" Walker snarled as shells continued to fall around them.

" _Walker! This is insane! Like Taffy III levels of insane! We're not going to survive this!_ " Fubuki cried out fearfully, using her wireless so she could be heard over the fracus.

Mahan barked out a laugh. " _You know what they say Fubuki. Live fast, die young, leave a good looking corpse._ " she said as her forward four-inch-fifty boomed and a glowing tracer arched into the massive behemoth.

" _Not_ helping _!_ " Fubuki snarled angrily.

"Got any other ideas Fubuki? It's either blast past this _bitch_ or try our luck with those Cruisers!" Walker snapped at her and the Special-Type remained quiet.

Mutsuki shrieked in pain as a round impaled her hull and detonated just behind her starboard side anchor, which snapped the chain and sent a good portion of the anchor and chain clattering over the side.

Another salvo of gigantic twenty-inchers roared at them, the arcs of the shells almost flat as they shrieked towards them. Enormous plumes of water erupting all around them as they hit, some of the shells actually skipped off the surface of the water, tumbling end over end as they did so.

"Let's make her maneuver! Mahan, torpedo action port, do not I repeat do not turn broadside on, only turn as far as you need to turn to unshadow your tubes before firing!" Walker ordered as she did exactly that, turning just enough so that she unveiled her portside fish.

" _Affirmative!_ " Mahan barked.

Together the two four-stackers maneuvered and unshadowed their portside torpedo tubes, eyeing their targets. "FIRE!" Walker roared and with a series of _wha-chumfs_ , six late-war MK XV torpedoes leaped out of their tubes, their burnished metal bodies gleaming in the sun. Then they entered the water with heavy splashes followed by energetic streams of bubbles tearing through the water as they knifed towards its targets.

The great battleship fired once again, but this time the enormous 20-inchers tore their through air right over their heads. _Goddamn! We're getting close!_ Walker thought as she fired again and this time her round blotted an anti-aircraft mount of existence. The range was now less than three miles, the Water Demon looked even more impressive now than it did at six miles, the size of the thing becoming absolutely apparent.

More shells continued to splash harmlessly across the thick armor of the leviathan. The same couldn't be said however for the more vulnerable AA guns, as the continuous stream of shells from the destroyers began to do serious damage to those defensive batteries.

That's when a pair of glowing tracers from Fubuki impacted, they plowed through the splinter shield and one of the Dual Purpose turrets blew itself apart as if a bomb had gone off.

Suddenly the Abyssal turned hard directly towards them. It's stern swinging out wide. The maneuver seemed to be beyond the maneuvering capabilities for the Battleship Water Demon to do, unless. Unless the thing was goosing it's own tail to evade the torpedoes.

The sudden maneuver caught the Abyssal Destroyer off-guard and with horrific sounding _crunch_ , the destroyer's bow crumpled like a beer can being hit by an eighteen wheeler and rebounded away from the dreadnought as if struck by an angry god. Despite the harsh maneuvering however, it wasn't enough and two enormous plumes of water erupted near the bow with gratifying thunderclaps.

Walker glanced at the others and frowned. They were battered sure but thanks to the little torpedo attack that herself and Mahan had launched. The thing was now facing more or less bow-on, which gave them a chance to kill this monster and thus throw the Abyssals into disarray and escape to safety. Thus she gave her next set of orders.

"Fubuki, Mutsuki. Run up this fucker's portside while myself and Mahan will run up it's starboard side. Hit this motherfucker with goddamned torpedoes!" She snarled.

"Yes ma'am!" They all chorused and together their hulls cut intricate geometries through the water as they maneuvered and raced towards there prey. _This is going to get hairy, that thing has_ a lot _of guns of all sizes and soon_ all _of them would come into play as they raced along side_. Walker thought as she thundered forward, her blower roaring and her twin bronze screws thrashing the water vigorously.

" _Walker! I got three Abyssal Heavy Cruisers coming out of the squall behind us! They got us pinned!_ " Mutsuki cried fearfully.

"Good!" Walker roared angrily, albeit with some glee in her voice. "Let'em watch!"

" _Hai._ " Mutsuki squeaked out surprised.

The four greyhounds sprinted forward, an enormous bone in their collective teeth. As they entered the broadside arcs, the entire Abyssal came to life with gunfire. Tracers spat from nearly every single gun that could bear and churned up the ocean with such intensity that one could see more white spray than water, it was a forest of tracers that reached out to smash them to pieces.

Walker gritted her teeth in pain as she continued her sprint, her hull plating was drumming almost constantly from the shell impacts now. Her tubes swung out and steadied, her three four-inch-fifty caliber guns were slamming out near constant rapidfire salvoes and pumped shells near constantly into the thing. "Ready Mahan?" Walker called back over her shoulder before swearing as an enemy shell utterly eradicated the area for her anchor and severing the chain. It fell into the sea with a metallic roar.

"Ready!" Mahan said, her teeth gritted in pain. It was obvious they were going to need a lot of repair time after this.

"Fire torpedoes!" Walker roared and moments later with a series of _wha-chumpfs_ , both destroyers fired their six remaining MK. XV torpedoes, while continuing to slam out 4in/50 caliber salvoes with a rapid-fire drumbeat cadence.

 _Wham!_ A burning sensation as if dozens white hot needles had poked her simultaneously erupted in the small of Walker's back and she barely managed to stifle a scream of pain. - _Chief, what the fuck was that?_ \- She demanded from her Chief Boatswain's Mate.

- _The three-incher's a wreck and another separate hit tore the absolute hell out of the pullman guinea. We're taking a hammering ma'am!_ \- Came the deep and gruff reply.

" _Time on torpedoes!_ " Mahan yelled through her radio, nearly deafening her probably so she could be heard over the roar of battle.

Walker checked her clock. "Twenty seconds!" she yelled back. Before fixing her gaze back on the Abyssal. She noted smugly that the thing was being thoroughly battered, a decent number of it's secondary guns were a mess and it had several small fires burning.

She glanced at the pocket watch once again and then shouted to Mahan. "T-minus five, four, three, two, one…" Walker said before waiting with tripediation before snarling "Goddamnit! They were-" before suddenly being cut off with no less than seven thundering booms and enormous plumes of spay being sent skyward. With a chest-pounding roar, smoke, soot, sparks, and flames erupted from the ship's forward funnel.

The Demon's speed dropped noticeably but it continued onwards, every gun that could bear blasting away at the four Kanmusu that were on it's flanks. Stabs of flame and smoke illuminating the rapidly darkening sky as the massive squall bore down on them, causing the tracers to glow with such intensity that it was as if they bolts of malignant lightning that were being thrown around by angry deities.

Then an absolutely enormous sound that was beyond description ripped over the water as no less than fifteen Type 93 Model 3 Torpedoes speared the monster's hull and tore it to pieces with their immense explosive charges, a great geyser of flame vomited upward before a tremendous explosion snapped the ship in half as if it was a twig while secondary explosions blew watertight compartment after watertight compartment apart. The warship's death roar as it's hull was torn asunder and surrendered itself to the sea was an awesome sound to behold and knowing they had killed this monster, it made Walker realize that even if she died later this day, she could die knowing that just four destroyers managed to kill the most powerful Abyssal Warship known to exist.

Then after giving a final glance towards the Abyssal Cruisers, she then dove into the squall at over thirty knots and to safety. Enraged salvoes from the Abyssal Heavy Cruisers churning the water up behind her.

Suddenly, the roar of her blowers cut off. Walker blinked in surprise, dismay, and alarm. Had she been hit? Where her blowers out? If they were then she was in deep shit, without her blowers then she wouldn't be able to maneuver because the fires in her boilers would go out from oxygen starvation! She was about to ask for damage report when she finally noticed her surroundings.

 _Oh fuck me sideways!_ Walker thought with a start as she noticed the dark greenish-black void of nothingness that surrounded her and thousands of raindrops surrounded her but they weren't falling. Then her blowers started roaring again as she powered deeper and deeper into the void.

Then her blood turned to ice as she heard someone let out an unholy sounding shriek of mortal fear and surprise that rapidly dopplered away from her, as if it was dropping away from her. - _The fuck was that?_ \- her helmsman asked worriedly.

- _Wasn't Mahan, that's all I can tell you_.- Walker responded dryly before clenching as her screws ran away as they were brought clear of the water, her CHENG shut them down almost immediately but it was very unnerving to be completely clear of the water and not in dry dock.

Then the floor seemed to drop out from under her and a vast sensation of falling overtook her, it felt like her four thrumming broilers suddenly clawed up into her throat. She screamed in fear for she had no horizon to turn her gaze on in order to figure out where she was. Then to make matters worse this high-pitched whine began, the nearest comparison would be to a ball bearing that was on the verge of failure. The sound built and built as did the sensation falling. It seemed to go on forever and then just before it became too much, everything changed as suddenly like the Coney Island Cyclone hitting the bottom of a ramp the sensation of falling was replaced with what felt like a rapid upward sweeping motion. The suddenness of the change played such hell with her inner ear that she slumped over in her rigging, unconscious.

* * *

The first thing that Mutsuki did once the great upward sweeping motion stopped and she felt the coolness of the water against her hull and felt the rain pounding her decks like it should have from the start was that she promptly vomited into the ocean. She _hated_ roller coasters, they always made her queasy and that had been the mother of all roller coaster rides.

"That was the strangest squall I've ever had the displeasure to go through." Mutsuki thought aloud before finding to her relief that she could get underway. But something didn't feel right about how she was moving, the level of thrust that her screws were providing felt wrong, then one of her legs began to throb painfully as if someone was taking a white hot gyrating needle to her calf. She clenched her fists and fought back the urge to shout in pain and then suddenly the pain began to subside but the thrust level became even more uneven.

- _Damage report, CHENG why the hell is my thrust uneven?_ \- Mutsuki asked calmly.

- _Simple ma'am. I think during the engagement against whatever had that metric ass ton of guns, best guess is that we've bent the starboard side propeller shaft at worse we've probably thrown a blade on the screw itself. It's fixable with what we have on hand although it'll probably take a couple of hours to do so and before it's fixed you'll be down a shaft until it is. But if we've thrown a blade, then we aren't fixing_ that _without some serious yard time._ \- Her Chief Engineer replied and Mutsuki scowled.

Suddenly another form became somewhat recognizable in the heavy rains. It was Fubuki and she looked somehow to be not shot pieces, which was how Mutsuki felt at the moment. She raised her hands and formed a speaking trumpet. "Fubuki! Over here!" she called and was gratified when Fubuki swung around approached her.

"You alright?" Fubuki asked when she got close.

Mutsuki groaned. "I'll manage, but if more Abyssals show up. Just leave me behind, I am down a shaft, CHENG thinks I've either thrown a blade on my starboard screw or bent the shaft on that side. Till it's fixed, my speed is severely handicapped." she said weakly.

Fubuki put a comforting hand on Mutsuki's shoulder. "It won't come to that, I swear." she said.

The sky was getting lighter and lighter around them. The squall was dissippiating around them and Fubuki fought down the urge to bolt. She would not leave Mahan and Walker to there fate. Not if she could help it, and judging by the look Mutsuki had on her face it was much the same with her.

Suddenly the long mournful whooping of a horn caught their attention and Mahan's battered form slowly appeared. Something seemed off about her approach however, she seemed to be straining at some great weight that was behind her and sure enough another form began to materialize. This shape too was heavily battered, but her heart still beat for they heard the thunder of her blower but she wasn't moving under her power.

"Oh Kami! Mahan!" Mutsuki cried before rushing over to the mauled _Wickes_ class. Mahan had seen better days, if her numerous cuts and gashes that were seeping blood was any indication.

"I am fine, Walker's out cold though. Not sure why, but I got her under tow. Regardless, we need to move." Mahan said gesturing to the other girl who was slumped over in her rigging.

"Is she alright?" Fubuki asked.

"She'll live, she's been through worse." Mahan said with a grin and pointed a finger at her knocked out compatriot. "Still, that squall gave me the heebie jeebies."

"I got something over by where that destroyer sank. Bunch of imps in the water, something seems to be among them. Possible enemy submarine trying to pull a rescue?" Mutsuki asked.

"Not sure, I'll check it out!" Fubuki said and her slender hull began to pick up speed, throwing a rooster tail several feet high as she rocketed toward the target that was swimming among the Abyssal Imps.

Several minutes later they heard Fubuki's forward guns bark out a ragged repostle. It was obvious her fairies were probably exhausted, two plumes of bright white water erupted near the shape and the thing staggered visibly. But before it could recover two more plumes of water erupted, and then moments later the sharp report from her 10cm guns washed over them.

Then came a report that they didn't expect. " _JESUS CHRIST! GUYS! THAT ISN'T A SUBMARINE, IT'S A FUCKING_ KAIJU!" Fubuki screeched in shock and alarm.

"What do you mean?" Mutsuki asked confused.

" _It's a long necked shark thingy! I don't fucking know what it is but it's a good fifty feet long!_ _Worse it's_ eating _those imps! Oh kami, oh kami!_ " Fubuki cried out, the fear in her voice so thick Mahan could practically _taste_ it.

The effect on Mahan was immediate, she instantly went white as a ghost with surprise and shock. "Fubuki, get your ass over here. I know a nice place where we can hole up and thusly explain one of the best kept secrets in the entire American Kanmusu program." The _Wickes_ class said.

Mutsuki tilted her head, a look of confusion spreading across it as she gazed at Mahan. "What?" she asked in a flat tone.

* * *

Walker's eyes fluttered open and she groaned in pain. The first thing she noticed was the sensation of warm seawater lapping against her hull. The second was the hearty of rumble of her blowers. The third and final thing however was all of the mist that enshrouded her, the air was thick and humid but it felt good regardless. Relief washed over her at the fact that she was alive and apart from the pain that was from likely battle damage was relatively okay.

She listened and was relieved to her the rumble of more blowers. Not her own, but those of her compatriots. It was actually a minor relief that she could hear them, for it meant that they still lived. She was about to get underway when she noticed something swimming in the water, a very familiar sleek silvery shape, a Flasher Fish.

"About time you woke up." A new voice, one that she recognized as Mahan spoke.

"How long was I out?" Walker asked groggily looking in her direction.

"Better part of nine hours, I had to tow you all the way here." Mahan quipped.

"Your not going to let me live this down are you?" Walker replied.

Mahan laughed heartily. "Nope!" she said cheerfully.

"Dammit. Alright, where are we then." Walker grunted.

"Menjangan." Mahan replied with a grin and Walker scowled, she had bad memories of this place.

A new voice spoke, one she recognized as Fubuki. "Walker, I got to ask. If what Mahan has told us is true, your war record is bar one of the most incredible things imaginable, I can't think of many ships who would have a war record like yours. Hell, the only ones that come to mind that has a similar war record would be probably Enterprise and Warspite. So is it?" she asked.

Walker sighed. "It is true, all of it. Hard to believe it, but it's true. Me a mere _Wickes_ class Destroyer has probably one of the best war records outside of the Grey Ghost or The Grand Old Lady. I was thirty years old at that time and certainly wasn't state of the art, instead I was an old, outdated, and decrypt ship that was lucky if I could crack thirty knots and that was before World War II even started. Yet the intensity of some of the fights I have gotten into, only the actions of Iron Bottom Sound come close to their intensity and ferocity." she said, her tone somber.

"Damn, I can't imagine what some of those battles were like." Mutsuki said awed.

"Trust me, you _don't_ wanna know. Plain and simple, those battles were incredibly difficult for a variety of reasons. I just consider myself lucky that I am still sane or mostly." Walker replied stiffly.

"Still, what are we going to do?! We're cut off from were in a completely different world and one that doesn't even known about Kanmusu to boot! What are we going to do!?" Mutsuki sobbed.

"Calm down Mutsuki. There's a couple of places we could go. Aryaal and B'mbaado would be the closest to us since we are at Menjangan. But despite being part of the Union of Homes, they don't have much of a port, in a pinch it could support a Home, but it's not designed for it. A better bet would Baalkpan, the capital city of the Union of Homes not to mention it has a major harbor and naval base. But on the other hand you got lot's of civilian traffic and it's a common anchorage for Homes, plus there is a pair of good sized fortresses guarding the mouth of the bay." Walker said looking thoughtful.

"What about Tarkan Island?" Mahan asked.

Walker sighed before shaking her head. "Baalkpan will be far enough, considering our damage. That and well, it is the stormy time of year and I don't want to go through a Strakka, not in our condition." she said.

"What's a Strakka?" Mutsuki asked befuddled.

"A Super-Typhoon on crack." Mahan deadpanned.

Both Mutsuki and Fubuki gained alarmed expressions on their faces. A Super-Typhoon was no laughing matter, to hear that this new world apparently had storms that were _more powerful_ than such a storm was incredible.

"Alright, so we're currently at Menjangan Island and it's roughly about a thousand kilometers to Baalkpan. We got the fuel and considering how well everything has gone. We got luck on our side as well, let's go!" Walker said and together they raised anchor and began to accelerate out of their little anchorage.

Several hours later however, a low rumble like thunder began to sound in the distance. Fubuki didn't notice the sound at first, she was busy watching an approaching squall line that they were heading towards. According to Walker, squalls here were just like the ones back home, unpleasant for a Four-Piper like her but not too bad for a Special-Type like her. Regardless she kept throwing nervous glances at Mutsuki who was going to have to handle the squall with only one engine.

"You sure your alright Mutsuki?" Fubuki asked and her friend looked at her before shrugging.

"I should be fine with just a little squall. Even with a snapped propeller shaft I should be able to handle it. Won't be pleasant but I should be able too." Mutsuki replied, but Fubuki could tell that she was worried.

A part of Fubuki's mind noted that the low rumble was getting progressively louder but she ignored it. "Are you sure?" Fubuki asked worriedly.

Mutsuki smiled slightly. "I am sure!" she replied.

Suddenly Mahan's head snapped around and she looked up. "Aircraft sighted!" she yelled.

Walker suddenly looked around nervously. "Where?! Where?!" She demanded hotly.

"Uh, bearing 320, long range!" The older of the two _Wickes_ class yelled.

Mutsuki snapped her head up in that direction and beheld no less than six gleaming fighters. They had a tailed delta wing with a single vertical stabilizer, with a relatively short and blunt nose and two protruding engine exhaust pipes from a sort of lower fuselage, while the vertical stabilizer was supported by an upper fuselage. The nose of the craft had a vicious looking shark mouth while emblazoned on the wings and fuselage was a roundel with a Navy Blue field, with a bright white five pointed star, with a dark red circle inside of it.

Walker gained this interesting expression on her face. One of not only relief but melancholy? Why did she suddenly look melancholic, it didn't make sense. Then she spoke and Mutsuki got her answer.

"Well, well, well. Hello Flashy Squadron." The _Wickes_ class stated, waving at the fighters.

* * *

 **A/N: Alright! There we go! The rewrite of the first chapter is completed.**


	2. Ch I: A Whole New World

**AN: Alright here we go! Chapter 1 of Kantai Collection: New Friends, New World. This will be regularly updated with rewritten chapters, but not entirely sure on the schedule if their is going to be one to begin with.**

 **Anyway, grab a refreshment, take a seat, and let's get this show rolling!**

* * *

"I've never heard of a squadron called Flashy Squadron." Fubuki said in dismay.

Walker gave her a look. "Right, you were never in this alternate world. Flashy Squadron in this war during the conflict against the Grik was sort of like the Flying Tigers back home. They were always getting the best kit first, even after the war when other squadrons were disbanded and such Flashy Squadron remained in active service. Best part is that they also double as a aerobatic demonstration squadron." she said.

"Oh, makes sense I guess. What sort of planes are they flying?" Mutsuki asked.

"No clue, the design has changed considerably. When I died you could say, the Union of Homes was still learning the ins and outs in the world of jet engine and thus those engines had a nasty habit of failing in flight among other things. But at least our survival gear while limited can withstand a Flasher Fish attack, although that was an utter bitch to figure out." Walker said with a shrug.

"Walker, Mahan. I have to ask will we be able to ever head home?" Mutsuki asked hopefully.

Walker and Mahan glanced at each other. "Can't say, I bought the farm at the Battle of Baalkpan Bay." Mahan replied her tone low and saddened.

Regardless a little hope did indeed blossom in their eyes. "I've lived on this world for many years before fate decided that I should finally stop living. But considering how we all make it eventually, I guess it was inevitable. Despite that however, I never did go back home." Walker said.

The hope that had blossomed in Mutsuki's and Fubuki's eyes died horribly. "You mean, we won't be able to see any of our friends again?" Mutsuki asked.

Walker nodded glumly. "It's true, I never truly got over the fact I would be able to see my sisters or step-sisters again. That said I got my own family here, got to say it was unique being I guess like a Cruiser or Battleship. Everyone was always looking up to me, or more commonly were giving me hero worship and awe. The hero worship I was always quick quash, not the awe though. I couldn't have been more proud of the designs my crew cooked up and promptly put to sea, it felt incredible watching not only a Navy but also a Nation sprout up." she said her tone full of melancholy.

"I can't imagine not seeing my sisters or my friends again. Just why is fate so cruel, why?" Fubuki asked, beginning to sob.

"No more Jintsū, Naka, or Sendai and no more Kongō and her sisters, Yamato, none of our friends. Your right Fubuki, no more sisters either. What cruel deity decided that we deserved this?" Mutsuki replied with a sob.

Mahan swept over to Fubuki and patted her reassuringly on the back. "I don't know but at least we aren't facing imminent death at the hands of the Abyssals anymore. I am happy to have a reprieve. But your right, all we got is each other and if we're lucky, maybe some of Walker's old crew is still alive. Although if Dennis Silva is still alive, I swear I will eat my own off-duty dixie cup hat." she said.

"I am going to hold you to that, Mahan." Walker said cheerily and Mahan scowled at her sister, eliciting a slight giggle from the younger _Wickes_.

"Whose Dennis Silva?" Fubuki asked confused.

"Someone you don't want as an enemy, that's who. That guy was so strong, I swear he could probably bench-press a Kanmusu like Naka fairly easily. Then there is the fact that even after he lost an eye at the Battle of Baalkpan he was still a crack shot and I am fairly sure he's damn near immortal considering all of the hair-brained, idiotic stunts that he's pulled off, particularly when you realize how many could've gone horribly wrong and ended with him dead. If he's still alive, he would be about 110 years old now." Walker replied.

"Come Walker, you know Silva. Do you seriously think that man would let something as simple mere _age_ claim him? I don't believe it for a second." Mahan said with a laugh.

"Then you're probably going to have to eat your hat." Walker said and Mahan stopped laughing and gave her a thunderous glare. Fubuki and Mutsuki giggled at the antics of the two _Wickes_ class Destroyers.

Despite the jovial tone that seemed to have engulfed them all, Mutsuki couldn't stop thinking about how if it hadn't been for that squall. Herself and her friends would've been ripped apart by the Abyssals, most likely one by one. It wasn't something she wanted to see happen, losing Kisaragi had been bad enough but then their had been that disaster of an operation to eliminate the Fortress Island Princess, where Yūdachi had gone missing and was presumed sunk after she had been last seen getting cut off from the fleet's escape route by an Abyssal _Ne_ class Heavy Cruiser and four _Ro_ class Destroyers and thus had tried to take an alternate route with the Abyssals in tow through a squall. Now if what Walker had told her was true, then she would never see her sisters again. Why did this stuff like this happen her?

A firm reassuring hand suddenly clasped itself firmly on her shoulder. She looked and saw Walker grinning at her. But it wasn't the sort of grin that got her worried when she cooked up some wacky idea that usually got DESDIV 59 in a lot of trouble and usually got something added to the List. Or the slightly bloodthirsty grin that she got whenever she entered combat and was on the tip of the spear. No, this grin was comforting and reassuring.

"It'll be fine, sure everything here wants to eats you. But if your smart that won't happen and besides, look at it this way. We may be lost on a world that Mahan would rather forget" She said and despite how she felt, Mutsuki allowed a slight smile and interestingly enough both Mahan and Fubuki nodded. "Despite that fact, we got dozens of new possible adventures to have, plus imagine the new friends we'll be able to make." Walker said with a comforting squeeze.

"Thanks Walker, and your right too. Is there anyone who you would consider a sister here though?" Mutsuki asked.

Walker tilted her head thoughtfully before nodding in understanding. "A few, about fifteen or so, _Wickes_ class Destroyers even though the technical name is _Jim Ellis_ class although they used my hull as a template, although they are more step-sisters than anything else. Ironically, in a sense they were better in some ways than I was. Mostly in the speed department and target range acquisition department, but that was because they had four boilers and an actual rangefinder. My rangefinder got chopped off by a piece debris during my first tangle with Amagi and Mahan lost her's during 1st Java Sea and I didn't get a replacement until after the 3rd new construction destroyers started rolling out of the yards." Walker said with a wistful smile.

"What was it like to see those ships for the first time?" Fubuki asked.

"It was interesting, that's for sure. I was just about over the moon at the prospect of having sisters again. Mainly because Mahan bought it at the Battle of Baalkpan and it thus left me with no true sisters on this world for about two years." Walker replied.

"I can't imagine what that was like, being sisterless." Mutsuki replied.

"It's not fun, let me tell you. I wasn't totally sisterless though, did have a blood sister." Walker said and both Fubuki and Mutsuki's jaws slackened in shock.

"Do you have any idea how _rare_ it is for Kanmusu to have blood sisters?" Fubuki said in a stunned voice.

Walker snorted. "Laffy Junior has two, both carriers, but I can't think of any others right off the top of my head." she said.

"Walker, I think that Kaga and Akagi as well as those at Crossroads might count as well." Mahan added.

Walker shrugged. "Right, I can imagine that." She said.

They continued onward in silence, every now and again glancing upwards towards the magnificent fighters that gracefully carved through the air. The rumble of their engines was proud and gave off an air of safety. Walker glanced upwards at the airplanes as they went to give them another flyby and waved energetically at the planes.

To the complete surprise of the assembled Kanmusu. One of the big jet fighters actually waggled it's wings at her in response as if it had managed to see her waving despite the altitude and how small she was.

"Do we got the fuel to skirt around the squall?" Mutsuki asked gazing at the planes.

"We should, aw what the hell. Why not, it shouldn't add more than a couple of hours to when we are due to arrive at Baalkpan anyway." Walker replied before throwing her rudder over and effortlessly shifting onto a new course with the agility and grace of a rumrunner, it was something that made her sisters, with few exceptions, jealous because agility wasn't the forte of the four-stackers and it was all thanks to an extra three feet of depth to her rudder.

The other Kanmusu followed her with varying levels of success. Regardless they shifted course and moved to evade the storm. The fighter planes of Flashy Squadron still roaring overhead as they did so.

Thirty minutes later however, from another squall on the horizon came something they didn't expect. "Surface target! Bearing 200, range 12,5-double-0!" Fubuki said.

"What is it?" Mutsuki asked in a tone that Mahan used so long ago when she had told Walker about her encounter with the Mountain Fish.

"Looks like a warship! Not Abyssal, it's too pretty, way too pretty actually." Fubuki replied quickly and Mutsuki sighed with relief.

Walker glared at Mahan. "You told them about Mountain Fish? What the fuck were you thinking?" she asked hotly.

"I've only told them about my encounter with one of those monsters but I did tell them they don't like shallow water or relatively confined spaces like the Makassar Strait!" Mahan replied and Walker's expression softened then she sighed shaking her head.

"Right, now then what are you…" Walker replied before shifting her gaze to the hard-charging ship. She was familiar with it's design, she had seen numerous warships of it's type during her life here. It's raked bow cut through the water smartly, while the distinctive gun arrangement of Mount 51 being a double mount and Mount 52 being a single only further helped to give away the ship's class identity. But what really sold it was the pilot house, which was shaped like a monolithic bunker and was eerily similar to the superstructure that the British Type 42 Destroyer had although Walker knew that in this case said superstructure was much smaller. If it was the class she was thinking that it was, then behind that pilothouse would be a pair of straight funnels, two centerline quadruple torpedo mounts, several 40mm and 25mm AA gun mounts, K-guns, depth charge racks, and another main battery gun arrangement that forward had mounted aft. Overall the ship's hull was painted a brilliant white while the superstructure and gun turrets were painted this dark gold color with the gun barrels painted black.

As she gazed at it, the ship spotted them and shifted its course, giving Walker a clear view of it's DD number, emblazoned proudly in large, blocky font in dark grey paint outlined in black on the bow, the paint contrasting nicely with her sharp white paint that adorned her hull. The number was '505'. "She's a friendly, _Fitzhugh_ class, judging by the number it's USS _Naga_." Walker said.

" _Fitzhugh_ class?" Mutsuki, Mahan, and Fubuki all asked in unison.

"Yeah, it's a seventies era design. I've seen more than my fair share during my years as a museum here. Pretty solid, although they had somewhat temperamental boilers, some of the older ones were just beginning to get retired when the Great Strakka of 1997 hit." Walker said eyeing the sleek and lethal destroyer.

"So besides her name. Is there anything special about her?" Mutsuki asked.

"Not really no. She has had to my knowledge a relatively normal career, well until now that is." Walker replied with a chuckle.

"You don't say…" Fubuki deadpanned.

* * *

Captain Franklin "Hotshot" Mallory callsign Flashy Leader, the great grandson of Colonel Benjamin Mallory adjusted his grip on the stick as he brought his F-30 Jethawk out of a tight turn and back into level flight. He hadn't really gotten a good a look at the contacts that Flashy Three had spotted knifing towards Baalkpan on the first couple of passes.

This time he was able to get a nice solid look at those contacts. What he saw made him cut back on the throttles allowing the roar of the mighty turbojets to die away and then he stared at the sight that his eyes beheld.

Four sleek and slender hulls carved through the water at a rather sedate pace. One of them looked like a Japanese Special-Type Destroyer. Big and powerful, but her gun turrets were the wrong shape not to mention the gun barrels were much longer and two of them were a wreck while smoke jetted from numerous holes in her two siamesed funnels but the way the ship carried herself seemed to be rather proud if a bit worried if that made any sense. The jets of Flashy Squadron were probably freaking her out.

He smirked at _that_ possibility. The planes of Flashy Squadron ran a rather lightweight paint job, the sharp clear painted metal of their planes glinted sharply in the sunlight, which when combined with the vicious shark mouth and glaring eyes that adorned the nose of their planes made the planes look like a Flasher Fish that flew which made them damn intimidating.

The second hull however was smaller and was even more chewed up than the other hull. The aft torpedo mount, at least he _thought_ it was a torpedo mount, he couldn't tell because of how mangled the thing was had been jammed in one direction. The pedestal aft of the torpedo mount was a twisted and shattered unrecognizable pile of scrap metal, at one point it had mounted _something_ but he wasn't sure. Between the two badly shredded funnels lay the ruins of what appeared to have been a gun mount. Another pedestal was aft of the aft mast and it's splinter shield had been absolutely shredded and it's gun barrel was askew.

The last two shapes however caught and held his attention quite thoroughly for simple reason. It was a hull shape that everyone in the Union of Homes was vastly familiar with. Four slender funnels perched upon a narrow and sleek hull, with three distinct superstructures in the form of a pilothouse, an amidships deckhouse, and aft of the torpedo tubes was an aft deckhouse. Both ships had severe damage the shredded funnels and torn up torpedo mounts was a testament to that fact quite clearly. Yet the ships carried themselves in a proud manner but he cursed at one particular fact, he had come in at the wrong angle and couldn't get a view on the DD hull numbers.

Cursing, he advanced the throttles to full and the engines let loose with a rumbling roar and he zoomed away from the contacts. Gaining several miles on the strange contacts he then cut power and applied left rudder and aileron swiftly bringing his aircraft into a wide banking turn. His wingman, a 'Cat with the nickname of Sandman easily following the maneuver.

Now coming at the contacts from a different angle, he was finally able to get a good look at them and had it been possible, his eyes would've popped out of his skull in shock. As it happened they widened as far as they could go when he laid his eyes on the ships and their hull numbers, they were numbers that was famous around the world. The four-piper that was behind the leader bore her number in proud white block text, that number was a mere '102'. Which meant, that ship was USS _Mahan_ and thus a rather famous ship but what was she doing here? That sure as hell wasn't the rebuilt Mahan for she had four funnels not two, plus hadn't she been just as badly wrecked as USS _Walker_ DD-163 in the Strakka of '97?

The leading four-piper hull number was legendary the world over. The proud white lettering was streaked with grime and was marred by numerous holes that had been hastily patched over and repainted. Not to mention the rust that streaked down her sides. Regardless the number stood big and proud, which matched the condition the ship, battered and beaten but still sailing proudly. 163.

That was impossible! Everyone knew that the great Strakka of '97 had damaged the old girl so badly that it was either scrap her or turn her into an artificial reef at Respite Island. Surprisingly it had been decided to do the latter, if he remembered correctly it had been something about "what the old girl wanted.", he wasn't sure entirely.

"You seeing this Sandman?" Mallory asked curiously over the radio.

" _Yes I do sur. Still working on believing it._ " Sandman replied in his heavy accent.

"Me too." Mallory replied as the two jets howled over the four ships, he waited till he had gained several miles before swinging the jet around. This time though the hulls were gone, in their place was four figures. "What the?" he asked out loud.

" _I got no idea._ " Sandman replied as they came up on them again.

One of the small figures turned as they raced towards them and although the motion was barely perceptible, Mallory realized that she was waving. Chuckling slightly, he waggled his wings in response.

" _How are we going to handle this sur?_ " Flashy Four asked with worry in his voice.

"Not entirely sure. But do you remember that incident that occurred involving the Sing-aapore Defense Squadron and what they found and fought?" Mallory asked.

The round of responses from the various pilots was one of affirmatives. They had been called in to provide to the Sing-aapore Defense Squadron support during that incident after all and had seen something fairly weird as well as evil. Naturally though the Ministry of Secrets had sworn them to secrecy.

" _Should we alert the_ Naga _then?_ " Flashy Three asked.

"Are you kidding?" Mallory asked in befuddlement.

* * *

Mutsuki sighed as the dull throbbing ache that was in her left leg thanks to her snapped propeller shaft, it wasn't hurting just this dull ache that refused to go away. Throw in the pain of the broken left arm and forearm from her wrecked number two and three guns, plus the numerous cuts, scrapes, and bruises that she got out of that tangle with the Abyssal Battleship Water Demon. Most of her hull damage had been patched and Mahan had set her broken arm and then put the limb in question in a splint, but that still didn't make the pain she was dealing with any easier. By all rights they should be dead, plain and simple.

Yet somehow, they weren't dead, which was in her opinion a miracle. She knew that she had a few close calls, but none like that. Made her realize that luck in war really was such a fine fickle thing, more so than she knew. She glanced at Mahan with a nervous look. "Hey Mahan?" she asked.

"Hm?" Mahan replied as she glanced at the name ship of the Mutsuki class of destroyers. "What is it Mutsuki?" she asked.

"Your good with mathematics right?" Mutsuki asked.

Mahan looked taken aback in surprise and what appeared to be a little disgruntlement. "Yeah, I am good with mathematics, I am not Kirishima by any stretch but I am pretty good." Mahan replied off-handedly.

"I got to ask, what were our odds of survival during that tangle with that Battleship Water Demon?" she asked.

Mahan pulled out a notebook and flipped through several pages before finding the page that she needed. "I don't normally tell what I get with these if Walker's around." the _Wickes_ class said.

Mutsuki cocked her head in confusion. "Why is that?" she asked.

"Because she," Mahan said sharply, pointing at Walker. "Doesn't like being told the odds and I can understand that. Particularly considering that the Battle of Baalkpan Bay had three hundred Grik ships each filled to the brim with God only knew how many warriors and Amagi against the Lemurian Home turned floating battery Salissa, the first construction frigates Donaghey, Tolson, and Kas-Ra-Ar, plus my younger sister Walker, and myself plus some of the nastiest seaside defenses this side of the Atlantic Wall and tens of thousands of trained troops. According to Walker, we killed over two hundred thousand of the bastards at that battle and it cost us so much."

Mutsuki and Fubuki both had looks of horror and surprise on their faces at that revelation. "Yeah, that was one of the biggest battles of the war. Absolutely gigantic in scale and scope, it cost us so much. Mertz, he was just a kid goddamnit! He was making sandwiches for my bridge crew when I got hit by a 10-inch projectile and it gutted my galley." Walker sobbed deeply, suddenly looking at least sixty years older instead of her nominal ten and half year old appearance. "They didn't even find enough of him to bury, he was all but obliterated by that shell."

Fubuki and Mutsuki just stared in stupefied shock at the _Wickes_ class. "Ten-inchers, ten-inchers." Fubuki hummed looking thoughtful and then her eyes widened. "Your talking about Akagi's older half-sister, Amagi aren't you?"

"You mean that goddamned Jap battlecruiser? Yes, I am." Walker replied, gritting her teeth and clenching her fists with barely contained anger.

Mahan butted in before Walker could get started on the triade that her younger sister was building up too. "Anyway, I did the calculations on our odds of survival against that Battleship Water Demon." she began.

"Alright, for once I actually want to know just how much we gave fate the finger." Walker interrupted, a small smile on her face, but the tone held an undertone of anger.

"Sure, well our chances of survival was around 1,763,576 to 1. I think we should all be counting our lucky stars then because we just really gave fate the finger." Mahan said and even Walker looked pale.

"Right, I agree that we should be counting our lucky stars, mainly because that's kind of insane even for a group like Taffy III." Fubuki said.

"They say luck plays a massive part in war, but I guess it plays a larger role than I thought it did." Mutsuki replied.

"Aye it does, very much so. I remember 2nd Madrass, the yard apes had managed to find and raise Mahan's wreck and then had rebuilt her into I guess you could say a destroyer escort, wasn't too happy that they stuck with the same name and hull number though, but it was probably for nostalgia purposes I guess. Anyway we were engaging these Grik Ironclads with the brand new Baalkpan Arsenal Mk 3 torpedoes, there was one left and both of us fired all of our remaining torpedoes at the last one. Anyway, all of the shockwaves from all of the torpedoes exploding sent one of mine amuck, didn't know it had occurred until it took everything forward of the pilothouse on Mahan right off. Wasn't too happy about _that_ let me tell you, we had won the battle with barely any damage sustained apart from a few lucky hits and then bad luck pays a visit and one of my goddamned fish amputates Mahan's bow, didn't sink her but it still stung." Walker said with a sigh.

"Better example would be the event that led to me getting sunk in the first place. I fired our last torpedo during the Battle of Baalkpan at _Amagi_ and this goddamned Grik Indiaman which we didn't spot until after I launched my torpedo accidently blundered into its path. That forced me to ram the goddamned Battlecruiser and then set off a load of depth charges." Mahan growled out angrily.

Fubuki grimaced. "Thanks for that image, that would actually be a pretty crappy way to go." she said.

Mahan gave Fubuki a deadpan look. "You don't say."

Mutsuki shook her head, then a new question popped into her head. "Walker, I have to ask. What's the city of Baalkpan like?" she asked.

"When I first sailed into Baalkpan Bay, Chief Grey said that Baalkpan looked like Cheefo and to be frank it sort of reminded me of the city. By the time of the Strakka of '97 however, a number of the wood buildings had been replaced with a combination of wood and stone with some of the more important structures implementing steel into their construction. Although Baalkpan is probably back up to where it was in the fifties now, after rebuilding after that Strakka hit." Walker said with a smile.

"So pretty interesting?" Mutsuki asked.

"Fairly, it's primarily a fishing port. Lot's of color though and I do mean _a lot_ of color, the Lemurians are very much an artistically inclined race. They don't like seeing anything plain or bare, I used to have this pea green colored curtain hanging in my wardroom. That is until some Lemurian artisan embroidered it with an extremely detailed and colorful image of my stunning victory over Amagi. Let me tell you, I wasn't expecting to win, not in the condition I was in for that battle." Walker replied.

"Didn't the Lemurians loose some of their artistic talent because of the war?" Mahan asked.

"Surprisingly not that much, oh sure warships, weapons, body armor, and engines are built via assembly lines unless the weapon or armor in question is ceremonial then it's made by hand and the civilian ships built these days are all built by hand as well. If anything, I'd say that their amount of creativity has gone up." Walker said.

Before any of them could reply to that revelation, Mutsuki happened to glance over her shoulder at the _Naga_. "Walker," Mutsuki said.

"What?"

"The _Naga_ is coming up on us quick." Mutsuki replied.

Walker looked back at the fast charging destroyer and saw that she was coming up quickly hand over fist, light grey smoke billowing from her funnels. Damn thing must have been making thirty knots at least, which meant despite the age of the destroyer she was obviously fast enough to catch them. Seeing this, Walker merely shrugged in response. "Alright, let's make this easier then." she said.

"How so?" Mutsuki asked.

"Simple, let's back our speed down from fifteen knots to five knots. This will allow the _Naga_ to catch up quicker and then we'll be able to save fuel and not have to worry about sneaking past the fortresses that guard the harbor mouth, because she's probably going to pick us up." Walker said.

"What makes you say that?" Mutsuki asked.

"I looked at the drone footage from the botched op against the Fortress Island Princess. I think that Yuudachi might have wound up here, just by looking at the storm she was fleeing too. It was the squall that I know, maybe it transported her to this world. But for all I know she could've sunk after going through." Walker said.

Hope blossomed in the eyes of the two Japanese Kanmusu, not a lot of hope, but some hope. "So is it possible that we'll see her again?" Mutsuki asked.

"Quite high knowing her. Yuudachi is most certainly a fearsome fighter and highly skilled, I am willing to bet that the Abyssals chasing her would've been likely dazed and confused after going through the squall. Yuudachi would've likely capitalized on the fact." Walker said with a shrug.

"Your right and regardless, a chance to rest would be good anyways." Fubuki said with a sigh.

Walker nodded in agreement. "Back it down, slow to five knots."

Their sudden slowing obviously caught the _Naga_ off-guard, for when she overhauled them. The big destroyer was still going twenty knots despite her slowing when she overhauled them, the sleek and powerful warship still had to swing back around.

* * *

Onboard the _Naga_ , Lieutenant Commander Jaaret-Shaan stood on the portside bridge wing, the stiff breeze from the _Naga_ 's eighteen knot pace ruffling his uniform and black and grey fur, his bright brown eyes fixed on the forms that his ship was currently circling that were _standing_ on the surface of the water. Just faintly visible around them, however were hulls, which didn't make any sense whatsoever. But then again he came from a Sea Folk family, thus he was little suspicious about them. That said, the Sea Folk were always a somewhat superstitious.

"Talker!" he barked.

"Yes sir?" His XO, a young woman named Andrea Jenkins asked. She was the bridge talker for this watch and held the mere rank of Seaman.

"Get Baalkpan on the horn, tell them what we found. That is if Flashy Squadron hasn't already done so. I want to know what to do here." Jaaret barked.

"Yes sir!" Andrea before relaying his orders.

Jaaret had been in the Navy for a long twenty seasons and for eight of those seasons, he had commanded the _Naga_. Sure she was an old ship and her iron hull creaked and groaned when she accelerated towards flank speed, but that didn't matter. For the _Naga_ was his ship and he was proud to be in command of her, the way she reacted when her throttle was opened and she could stretch her legs, it was as if she was alive, which made sense. The Sea Folk always believed that ships, from the smallest Feluccia to the mightest of Homes had a soul.

He had heard rumors naturally that there had been a crossing and that the crosser all but confirmed the long held belief that ship had souls. But the Ministry of Secrets seemed to be keeping a tight damper on things, which peeved him to no end.

Jaaret glanced at his XO. "What do you think?" he asked.

"Not sure sir, my mind is telling me one thing but my eyes are telling me another. It's just plain weird, sir." He replied.

"Exactly, that's how I feel; it's not anything I've ever seen before and I don't know what to do with this situation." Jaaret said keeping his gaze on the unknowns. They seemed to be for the most part moving slowly in the same overall direction that the _Naga_ was, but for the most part were keeping a respectful distance away from the 400 foot long destroyer.

"It's daamn spooky." The helmsman said.

"Commander!" Andrea called out.

"Yes Seaman?" Jaaret replied.

"Radio room just reported that they got a response from Baalkpan." Andrea said.

"What did they say?" Jaaret asked.

"That we're to escort them to Baalkpan and guide them into the harbor while under the cover of night and that we are to avoid civilian traffic at all costs." Andrea replied.

Jaaret resisted the urge to cover his face with a paw. "They do realize that where we are currently six hundred eighty eight kilometers away from Baalkpan and that at our top speed of thirty knots we will be arriving at the city at the crack of dawn? The old girl isn't as fast as she used to be, plus I think they got battle damage and wouldn't be match our speed." he growled out in frustration.

"I understand that sir, but this comes from the Ministry of Secrets directly. They seem to have a plan in mind however." Andrea replied.

"Right, well a flatout sprint to Baalkpan is just out of the question. Mainly because that long of a sprint for us at thirty-knots is going to be brutal on the engines and if we have something pop on us then there is no way in hell we can do that, not to mention those spectral hulls? Have certainly seen better days and I wouldn't be surprised if thanks to damage they can't reach thirty knots." Jaaret said.

"So what do we do then?" the XO asked.

Jaaret grinned. "We get creative, it's obvious that escorting them in is out of the question. Thus we got to take them aboard and get them to Baalkpan that way, have the machine shop put something together that we can lower into the water from the fantail and, I am going to try and contact them with the TBS. That doesn't work, then we will try signal flags and if that doesn't work, we'll use the morse lamp." he said grabbing the talker for the TBS out of its cradle.

"Aye aye sir!" Andrea said before relaying Jaaret's orders.

* * *

Walker stiffened for a moment as her Talk-Between-Ships crackled and a voice she had never heard before sounded off from her radio room. " _Atten-i-tion unknown vessels on absolute bearing 075. This is the USS_ Naga _, you are ordered to heave to and identify yourself._ " a voice, firm and commanding said.

Walker glanced at the others who were looking at her. "We don't have a choice, heave to and run up identification signals." she said a nervous look on her face.

"What else are you planning Walker?" Mahan asked.

"What do you think?" Walker asked.

"Your shitting me." Mahan replied throwing her hands in the air in exasperation.

"Someone has to do it." Walker chirped happily, her hull heaving too, as she did so she caught a swell wrong and it sent her hull cork-screwing through the water. At the same time her identification signal went racing up the halyard.

Before any of the Kanmusu could reply however, Walker put her left fingers to her ear and spoke her reply in a firm tone that was colored by her noticeable Massachusetts accent.

The reply was interesting.

* * *

Baalkpan Naval Base was an expansive affair, it had moved from its original location on the north shore of the bay near the city to a place a little farther into the natural harbor, roughly where the city of "Nananag" would be. The base was collection of quays and piers, a couple of seaplane ramps, six drydocks, as well as brick and wood buildings, with more important buildings made from concrete and steel.

However for technically retired, but not wanting to go against the wishes of The Ministry of Intelligence, United States Navy Reserve Chief Gunner's Mate 1st Class Dennis Silva that mattered little considering what his job was at the moment which was keeping an eye on what supposedly was the spirit or incarnation of the soul of a Japanese Warship from World War II, a _Shiratsuyu_ class Destroyer, Yūdachi or as he pronounced it Yuudachi.

Silva, despite his age of 110 years and eight months was a broad-shouldered man. His hair, was a trimmed sun-bleached tan color that matched his beard was cut in a brush cut haircut that was slightly longer than how he had it during the Grik War/WWII era that it. His skin was somewhat darker too to help cope with all the sunlight the hot and humid tropical environment that Baalkpan was situated in got. His towering frame rippled with powerful muscle that for some reason, hadn't lost the hardness of youth. Some said that he looked like a pirate and they weren't wrong in that respect, the fact that he had lost an eye during the Battle of Baalkpan which was now covered by an eye patch and had a gapped tooth grin before that action had even occurred furthered the look. But beneath the tough and gritty exterior was someone who really cared about those under his protection and someone who would move the Heavens, Earth, and quite possibly even Hell itself to see to that.

Of course that wasn't the biggest reason why he had been selected for this task. Apparently some genius realized that if the spirit of a Japanese WWII era Destroyer could return like she did then what were the odds that any of the 1st and 2nd Construction Frigates could return? Was it possible that even the 3rd Construction Destroyers and 1st Construction Cruisers could return? Or one of the great carriers from that conflict? Or even the legend herself, USS _Walker_ DD-163? If that were true then it would be best to have a familiar face to take charge of them.

Not to mention his goal was learn as much as humanly possible about shipgirls as the english translation went. He couldn't hope to pronounce the Japanese word, the one time he'd tried he had butchered it horribly. Regardless he was about to start an interesting conversation with his charge.

"So Yuudachi." He said.

The young girl, no _destroyer_ , he reminded himself turned to look at him, her red-tipped hair tufts twitching as they did so. "Hm?" she mused.

"So you've mentioned you have radio and TBS capability right?" Silva asked, not exactly sure where he was going with this.

Yuudachi nodded vigorously in response.

"So do you need to be in your rigging then in order to use your radio or TBS?" Silva asked.

"In order for me to use my long-range radio, I need to have my rigging on, poi. But I can use my TBS when I am not in my rigging, poi." Yuudachi replied, finishing each sentence with that verbal tic of hers, it was admittedly adorable.

Silva tapped his chin, pondering where to go with this idea. Then it hit him, Baalkpan did have one museum ship here nearly year round, the three-masted sailing frigate USS _Donaghey_ DD-1. The first of the three 1st Construction Frigates to be completed and commissioned; not to mention the 1st ship to circumnavigate this world. "Yuudachi, can you use your TBS talk to the soul of a particular ship that isn't a shipgirl." Silva asked.

"I think so, poi. I've never tried, poi." Yuudachi replied looking unsure.

"Good, because it's time for a little experiment. I am probably going to catch hell for it later but you know _Donaghey_?" Silva asked.

"You mean the sleek three masted sailing ship that looks like the _Constitution_ , poi?" Yuudachi asked curiously.

Silva smiled, one that was somewhat curious in its nature. "Yes, that one. Think you can raise her on the radio?" he asked.

"I'll try, poi." Yuudachi said before screwing her face up in concentration before speaking. "Calling _Donaghey_ , please come in _Donaghey_ , poi." she said.

Silence answered them in return, Silva looked at Yuudachi and shrugged in response. Yuudachi repeated the call twice before something completely unexpected happened.

" _Ugh_ " a feminine voice groaned. " _Harak-Rast, how many times do I have to tell you to not bug me in the wee hours of the afternoon or morning?_ "

Silva noted that while the voice _sounded_ young it also had the sort of tone to it that the speaker was wise beyond her years. As well as one of annoyance. He glanced at Yuudachi who had a surprised look on her face, obviously she hadn't been expecting this to work either that or it was the fact that apparently one of the warships here sounded like her.

"Well I be goddamned, it worked. I wasn't expecting it to work." Silva muttered stunned and then he spoke up louder. "Donaghey, I have to admit, right now you sound like you managed got up on the wrong side of the bed and haven't had your morning coffee yet at the sametime. I have got to wonder why that is, also the _Harak-Rast_ is on patrol right now and isn't due home for at least another two weeks." he said in a casual tone.

Silence reigned on the freq for about ten seconds and then. " _WHA! SILVA?! What the hell? How the_ chi-kaash _are you able to talk to me?! It should be impossible!_ " she yelled surprised not to mention shock and Silva laughed out loud in a roaring belly laugh while Yuudachi broke down into helpless giggles.

"It's hard to explain Ms. Donaghey but can you keep a secret?" Silva asked once he got his laughter under control.

" _Yes I can._ " Donaghey grumped although it sounded like she was very confused as to what was going on. " _Now can you please explain to me what the hell is going on?_ " she growled, not sounding very amused.

"I'll try but bear with me, this gets into some pretty weird stuff." Silva said.

" _I don't think it can get any weirder than the squall that transported Walker and Mahan here originally nor any of the weird ass stuff I saw on my voyages of discovery and I saw some pretty weird shit._ " Donaghey stated flatly.

Silva resisted the urge to snort in response, he had seen some crazy shit in his life as well and had thought her had seen it all, until he had meet Yuudachi. Now though, some that stuff seemed normal compared to the day he had about a week ago where he had to put Yuudachi through her physical paces to see what she could do and thus had been quite surprised to find out that she was nearly as capable as he was in terms of athletic ability. Which was something, still he was going to be surprising the frigate Donaghey and from what he knew of her service record that probably wasn't easy.

Thus Silva and Yuudachi explained in a nutshell what shipgirls were. Wasn't easy though they both had to admit. Donaghey if anything seemed curious but was polite about it. " _I will admit, that's a little crazy even for this world. But then again, I'd thought I had seen everything until I laid eyes on the Alaaska Ice Sheet, two whole goddaamn_ kilometers _of visible of ice and Lord only knew how deep it went._ " Donaghey replied.

"Well that's interesting. Anyway, thanks for your time Donaghey." Silva said thoughtful.

" _No problem, it was nice talking to someone new for once. That's sort of rare around here._ " Donaghey replied.

Yuudachi giggled in that cute way of hers and Silva allowed himself a slight smile, a moment later with a minor crackle of static the connection died. Silva then looked at Yuudachi as he leaned back in his chair. "I'd say that was successful, but it would be best if we kept that between ourselves." Silva said.

"Agreed, poi!" Yuudachi replied.

With that one last experiment or test done, now came the final thing that Silva wanted to touch base with today. It was a known fact that Japan had more of these shipgirls and thus in that light they were worried about two particular shipgirls returning.

"Yuudachi, I got to ask you something." Silva said.

"What is it, poi?" Yuudachi asked.

"I've got to ask, The Ministry is rather worried about two particular shipgirls transitioning over from back home and well they want to know if they are even around." Silva said.

"Oh, which ones are they, poi?" Yuudachi asked curiously.

"The Imperial Japanese Navy Battlecruiser Amagi and the Imperial Japanese Destroyer Hidoiame." Silva said, spitting the name of the _Kagerō_ that had gone Pirate, killing a lot of good people as if it was something that tasted foul.

"They are both back, poi. But, they are both on convoy duty, mainly because while Amagi-san is technically supposed to be a bigger and better _Kongō_ class, her armament is crippled thanks to the Washington Naval Treaty. She can fight cruisers and in a pinch go up against capitals but her guns and armor isn't up for it. She does have torpedoes though. Thus, the reason she's on Convoy duty is just to give the convoy escort some real teeth, poi. She almost always has a destroyer with her, Harekaze-san I believe her name is, a _Kagerō_ , she was sunk at 2nd Java Sea, it was her first ever combat action and it got her cracked in half, poi. Hidoiame-san is a unique case, she knows that she has a massive stain on her honor and thus is willing to do anything to cleanse her honor of that stain including committing Seppuku, ritual suicide, poi. But she then had a discussion with Teitoku, Admiral, Goto I don't know what was said in that conversation, poi. But next thing I know, she's assigned to Convoy duty, poi. I would say that their chances of crossing over are rather slim, poi." Yuudachi said shaking her head.

Silva nodded, that made sense. Amagi while her armor was immune to four-inch-fifties even something like the old _Arkansas_ could probably chew her up pretty easily, if she could catch her. Something about the Japanese Destroyer that was constantly following her around though made him remember something from The Escape from Surabaya, it clicked as he realized that the destroyer that constantly followed Amagi around had probably been the one that _Walker_ had cracked in two with torpedoes. As for Hidoiame, he wasn't exactly sure why she would consider committing Seppuku.

Then it hit him, while Hidoiame's _crew_ had gone pirate. The ship herself was probably dead set _against_ it, along with the other atrocities her crew committed. It made perfect sense as for why she was on convoy duty. She felt that their was a chance for her to reclaim her honor by doing what she should've happened in regards with Mizuki Maru and that tanker, by protecting them and seeing that they made it to their destination.

There was a knock at the door. "Come!" Silva barked loudly. The door opened and a Lemurian wearing the distinct dark grey and navy blue uniform of the Ministry of Intelligence strode in, the white rank stripes on the blue kilt indicated that the Lemurian in question was a Lieutenant.

Silva blinked and then came to attention and snapped off a parade ground perfect salute, to his surprise Yuudachi did come to attention and saluted as well. The Lemurian blinked amusement at the duo and then spoke. "At ease you too." the 'Cat said after returning the salute.

Silva and Yuudachi relaxed. "What's wrong, sir?" he asked automatically.

"Something has cropped up that requires, ah your memories gunner's mate." The Lieutenant said.

Silva looked at Yuudachi who shrugged in confusion. "Well that's not very helpful, what do you mean that you need my memories?" Silva asked confused.

The Lemurian sighed before speaking. "A Flight of Flashy Squadron and the USS _Naga_ discovered four more "shipgirls" as they're called. Two of them are claiming to be Waa-kur and Mahaan, sur." The 'Cat said and Silva blinked surprise.

"I never served on Mahan though remember?" Silva said.

"Mahaan's already been proven, apparently one of the _Naga_ 's torpedomen is the Great-grandson of one of Mahaan's crew members described what could best be explained as an embarrassing event for the soul in question." The Lemurian said, his tail flicking in an amused manner.

Silva chuckled, there was quite a few incidents involving _Mahan_ that he could recall that a shipgirl looking back on it would consider to be quite embarrassing. Then it clicked for why he was required with Walker. "I get it now, so you need me in order to find out if she really is who she's claiming to be. Well, I am not the Skipper by any stretch of the imagination but I am probably the next best thing. But how the hell I am supposed to be able to prove who she really is when I am in Baalkpan? I am fairly sure a Clipper flight is out of the question just because of how strange it would be." he said.

The Lemurian fortunately had an answer. "You and your charge are going to be brought to a Ministry radio shack and put you in direct contact with them." the 'Cat replied.

"Alright lead on then." Silva said and then together the three of them walked out of the barrack building and into the harsh tropical sun. Silva noted that waiting for them idling in front of the building was what appeared to be a one-ton truck with an extended cab. Together the three of them climbed inside.

The ride out to the radio shack was relatively short, if a little bumpy. Mainly because the road out to where the radio shacks were wasn't paved with stone but was just a simple dirt road. Eventually the truck ground to a stop and together they dismounted, the radio shack was one of those Ministry of Intelligence ones that used grey concrete predominantly in it's construction rather than colorful brick, wood, and chinese roofing tiles that civilian buildings were typically constructed from. There was a couple of windows but not many as the structure was fairly small, maybe three feet long and five feet wide. Nearby was an immense radio tower that soared several hundred feet into the air.

The interior was different, the walls were adorned with a soothing ocean blue paint. Along one wall was radio equipment perched atop a table, along another was a bulletin board with a map, a schedule for the radio operators and what time they were supposed show up, along another wall was a coffee machine, and there was a ceiling fan. Thoroughly spartan but it got the job done.

The radio operator greeted them at the door, introducing herself as Siraas-Traas. "It's alreaady set up to the proper channel, sur." she said, although it was clear that she wasn't happy with someone who wasn't trained on how to use a radio touching her equipment.

"Right, so how do I use this thing?" Silva muttered as he sat down in front of the radio.

Siraas moved the mic forward and handed him a pair of headphones. "Press this button here to transmit. We're on a channel specifically used by the Ministry of Intelligence and so no worry about unapproved ears." she said.

Silva nodded, that made sense and he agreed wholeheartedly. Without further ado, he pressed the transmit key. "This is Baalkpan Naval Base calling NESX, come in NESX, over." he said.

The speaker replied almost immediately, her voice was different from Yuudachi's, considerably different actually. First it had a distinct _New England_ accent to it's feminine tone, but it also sounded much younger than Yuudachi sounded younger then Becky had when he had first met her and she had been thirteen or so at the time, but her tone was absolutely _giddy_ with glee for some reason.

" _This is NESX, call me Walker, that you Silva? I gotta say I haven't heard your voice in a_ loooong _time. Got to ask though why are you at Baalkpan Naval Base's radio shack? Over._ " The young voice asked, Silva wasn't quite convinced that it was in fact the _Wickes_ class Destroyer that he had considered a 2nd Home.

"Long story, let's just say that their are a few people who have some doubts about who you are. Over." Silva replied.

" _Affirmative, not surprising. So let me guess, they brought you in so that you could ask me questions to see if I really am who I say I am? Over._ " the youngling on the other end asked, although it was phrased like a statement.

"Unfortunately so. But the questions I am going to be asking are relatively simple at first, over." Silva stated.

" _Roger that._ " Came the reply.

"Alright, first question. After Mr. Lanier restored the Coke Machine back to health after it got eviscerated by fragments from a Jap shell, what did he have his mess attendants do with the damn thing during GQ? Over." he asked, it was a fairly easy answer. Hell it was so well known that anyone who had an interest in Grik War history knew what the cook did.

The youngling on the other end of the channel barked a laugh immediately afterward. " _Mr. Lainer would in order to protect his machine, have his mess attendants move the thing to a part of my hull where it would be safe. Although more than once he did do it by himself, the clusterfuck that was the Battle of New Scapa Flow comes to mind, over._ " The youngling said amusement clear in her voice.

Silva's lips twitched upward, that had been an easy question but the quickness in her response was certainly unique and then there was how she thought about the Battle of New Scapa Flow and well, the term fit that little mess quite well as he understood it, even if he hadn't been at that particular action.

"Right, second question. When was the first time I called Captain Reddy, Skipper? Over." Silva asked, it was most certainly a tricker question to answer considering that one would have to know _Walker_ 's pre-transition history rather well.

The youngling on the other end hummed in thought for the briefest of moments before answering. " _First time you called Captain Reddy Skipper was after you and Laney got into a Bar brawl in Cavite that resulted in him docking a stripe and putting you on half pay for, I think it was two weeks, over._ " The youngling said.

Silva smiled, two out of two so far. He was just about convinced that the youngling really was Walker, but if she got this one right then it would be confirmed. "Alright, final question. What was my reaction after when I was screwing that bronze screw on when the goddamned Flashies figured something was in the Canvas we were using to create a safe working area and one of them banged me right between the shoulder blades and caused my helmeted noggin to hit the propeller blade? Over." he asked.

An amused sound came over the comm link. " _That has a fairly amusing answer as it was something of a non-sequitur it was and I quote "Son of a bitch, I think it was a Buick, officer!" unquote._ " The youngling said, amusement clear in her tone. " _I don't think Laney would've been able to think or move for several minutes if he took the hit you did. Yet you just kept on trucking, over_ "

Silva laughed out loud. "Roger that, well suffice to say little one. You passed with flying colors, that last one isn't widely known! Over." he said.

" _Wilco, can't wait to see you Silva, out._ " Walker replied.

"Affirmative, Baalkpan Naval Base signing off." Silva said before moving away from the radio kit and taking the headphones off.

"So?" The Lemurian from the Ministry asked.

"It's her. It really is Walker." Silva said with a grin.

"Your absolutely positive?" The Lemurian asked.

"Completely." Silva replied.

"The Ministers are going to flip when they hear this. Also got to inform Captain Reddy even if he is retired." The Lemurian muttered before then pulling two slips of paper out of a pocket and handing them to Silva. "Those are shore leave passes, you've earned them." The Lemurian said.

Silva grinned and then looked at Yuudachi. "You feel like your up for some hunting?" he asked.

Yuudachi shrugged in response. "I don't mind, poi. I do want to explore the jungle, poi." she said, a little too enthusiastically.

"Yuudachi I can understand that you're eager to go exploring in the jungle. But it's extremely dangerous, there are predators in that jungle that are big enough to consider even you or me as something that's on the menu. Plus some of the herbivores are extremely dangerous in their own right. If we are going to go hunting, then there have to be some ground rules." Silva said before sighing at how Yuudachi's face fell and her face rapidly paled. "Nothing too major though, they are rather easy to follow. Don't go wandering off, always have a weapon with you, in this case likely a rifle of some sort probably something in .50-80. Also make sure you do exactly what I say, even if I tell you to run. Do that and you'll be fine." he said and Yuudachi promptly perked up.

"Okay, poi. It'll feel good to explore, poi." Yuudachi replied.

Plan for tomorrow in hand, Silva and Yuudachi left the radio shack and went back to their assigned barracks. All things considering though, today had been more than a good day. Not to mention several new faces would be arriving soon, if anything things were starting to look up.

* * *

 **AN: Alright, here's a rewrite of chapter one. Sort of iffy still on the whole Yuudachi able to contact the bound spirit of** _ **Donaghey**_ **but it was hilarious to write. Won't be a common thing to occur however, even if Kanmusu are more mystically inclined compared to regular humans, as well as Lemurians, etc.**


	3. Ch II: Troubles

**AN: Alright here we go; another chapter of New Friends, New World. The rewrite is continuing as we go. I am sure you've noticed the changes that have been steadily appearing within the rewritten chapters and soon larger and more drastic changes will occur as time goes on. Some of the more drastic changes are happening in this chapter.**

* * *

 **Wake Island**

 **Old World**

Eleven years of occupation under the Abyssals had seen Wake Island changing drastically: The island itself had been expanded in size, the Lagoon was now deep enough to handle full sized battleships and it's mouth was now guarded by immense fortresses. The maws of imposing cannons poked out of chitin gunports ready to defend the harbor under their protection to the last shell. Plus it was now dominated by several jagged spires both on land and in the sea, the once white sandy beaches now as black as charcoal and as harmful to humans as volcanic ash, while the once clear light blue waters of the harbor were now a dark blood red color the water itself corrosive to non-Abyssal hulls.

For the Abyssals, Wake Island was a common staging point for raids against trans-pacific convoys as well as the Hawaiian Islands not to mention a minor shipyard. Gathered within the Lagoon were ships, abyssal transports. To be specific Fast Attack Transports and large variants of the faithful Landing Ship Tank each one loaded with hundreds of Abyssal Troops and Vehicles.

In the structure of coral, chitin, and concrete that dominated the center of the island like a black magilant mark. Many sounds rang through the halls of building, the majority of the sounds was break-step marching from what the humans had designated as "Champion Leaders", their distinctive short staff swords secured firmly to their waist via a saber ring while the armor they wore was immaculately polished to a high sheen, held in their powerful hands was their fearsome assault rifles, while what resembled a cartridge box that was positioned opposite of their sword contained their grenades. They strode with purpose and they all knew what they guarded. Other sounds however didn't have this same steady beat, in some of corridors whimpers and cries of those who had been taken prisoner by the Abyss and awaited their fate, in other areas screams as those who had been taken prisoner met demises of unspeakable horror.

In one vast chamber, resting on a throne of twisted iron, concrete, and bone was an absolutely massive Abyssal. Had she been fully erect she would've stood at a towering 14'5 ¾'' in height, her ivory skin rippled with vast muscle while her blood red eyes gleamed with a mavelonent intelligence. Her long, curly coal black locks fell halfway down her back. She had been known as the Isolated Island Princess but now she was the Lonely Island Queen and thus was an extremely intelligent Abyssal, she was the one who had planned the destruction of a human Carrier Strike Group at the start of the war not to mention having played a critical role in breaking the back of the United States Pacific Fleet. At the moment though she was absent mindedly stroking her beloved White Bengal Tiger, a gift from the tratrious Northern Princess before she had defected.

A new figure walked into the throne room, she was much smaller than her immense height, standing at roughly 5'5 3/4'' the Abyssal in question was a Destroyer Princess class, a rarity among her fleet. They were prized for the incredible amount of ASuW, ASW, and AAW firepower that they provided while remaining relatively small. Usually they followed a distinct if somewhat familiar pattern though, not this one. She was more unique among Abyssals though, a true rarity, she had started life as one of those thrice-damned Kanmusu before being sunk in combat by her bomb armed fighters and then her body was recovered, the crew removed and the Kanmusu abyssalized. As result from the hull that they started with she was somewhat shorter than your standard Destroyer Princess, not that it mattered she was still extremely powerful.

Gone was her old uniform and dark pink hair, in its place was hair that was such a dark shade of blue it appeared to be almost black while her outfit was black and grey with white highlighting that unlike other Destroyer Princesses was more suited for practicality. Her black blouse integrated light purple chainmail armor over her vitals and her black and grey mini-skirt had a similar setup. Her once pink eyes no longer contained a visible iris and they glowed in an intimidating deep purple color that contained a starting level of intelligence.

The Princess, self-named as Ishi, the Japanese phrase for Williwaw, gracefully kneeled in front of the throne, bowing her head. "Wh͉a̘̻t̟̰̗͂ͦͩ i͚͑s ̜̭̫ṭ̺͇̎̆̚h͖͇̳͒̂̋y̘̼͎ͨ́̈ ̮̑bḭ̗̠͐̍ͤd̎d̄ͦi͇͍̓ͫng m̮͖̘ͨ̉ͬy̝̲ͨ͐ ̤̟͚q̩̮u͈̜̻e̬̙̓ͩen?͕͍̫͐̅ͩ" She rumbled.

"Ris͖̒e̻̼̮ͬ̑̾ D̦ͯesͣt̙͉͍r̈ͭoyͮ͛̾ȇ̠r̼̖̈ͫ ͍͆Priñ͎̳̓c̖̙e̩ss͛͗͋ ̭͌I̳͐s͙̮h̼͎̲̾͒̓ȋ̝." The Lonely Queen intoned and with a single fluid motion, Ishi rose to solid attention. "B̘̘͓͊̍̇ef͖͓̰o͙r͖e ͦͣẘ̩̣́e̾ͫ͊ ̋ͤͦb̒ͮe̹͎͖͑̈́̑g̞̟̺̓ͬͬin,͖̦̬͛̀ͬ ̗ͧI̭ ̤ͯm̫̠̙̎͂̇usͧt̮͙̟ ͅas̍k̤ͅ.̤̝ͯ̃ ̦̃Ha̬̺͖̋ͮͮv̹e ̠̪̄̎y̭̗ou͗ ͚͙̳̍ͮ̚h̟̪͛̌ad̮ ̣͇͑ͨa͉̘͔͋ͤ̂n̈́̃ͅͅy p͈̤̄͑rͦ́oͯbl̮͇ͭ͗em̰s͗ ͐w̰i̲͔ͮ̊t̟̎h̺̦ ͚̹ͯͥt̼͕h̻̖ͮ͆̋ͅe ̖͍̂̆l̐ͨo͕ͪc̰͑kė͍d ̼̚aw͛a͕̦̍ͫy ̝̥̓̚s̀̎̂p̪̬͌̓iri̩̘̠͐ͧ͊t̼̖ͅ ͫo̟͈̿̈́f ̜̝̞ͯ̾ͧth̤e ̹̬ͯͮKanm̻̞us͙̱͑ͥu̮͉ ̲̀f̙̦̉̿r͎̠̺̊́ͦo͐̐m̘̎ w̻̰̏̅h̫̫̞ͣ̇̚ic͕̪ͭ̓h yổu̦ we͎̅r͙̯̙ͦ͂̓e͍͑ ̓creã̯͙ͭt̳̚e̳͎͚ͥͯ̂d͌̎?͒"

"N̈ͫͬo mͭy ͕͚ͨ̌Q̣̝͚ueeǹ̳̹́, if͖̖ an̖̓y͐t̤̻̻̂͐͌hiͣn̮̖̻ͬͥͥg s̮̆ẖ̺̽̍e ̝̪̊̔ṡ̓e͚̰͎e͚͊m̩̖̎̾sͦ ̹̲ͩ̑cô̱nt̝ent͓̤̝̓̅͋ ̼̭̯̓͋͌w̠̔i̼͙͎ͧ͗̚t̺͎̥̿ͧͨh̎͑ ͕͚̙̾̌̎w̄ͩ̐hat͇͗ ̪͊ṣ̮̬̄͒̏ĥ̺e̻ ͍̝̝̒͑̔o̾̎wͩ̈n̬͖͍̍̂̒s̹̪̠͋̓̚ b̺̏u̺͕t w̦̹͑̇hȇ̪͍̆ň̃̄ȅv̽ͧḛ̥̼ͪ̾̑ṟ̖͗̚ ̫̤̅̔sͮh͚ͩḙ͇̇̒ pu̱ṯ̏ṣ̜ ̼̱̀͗ou̩̖t̩̗̟ f̰̪͈e̲é͉lë͚̼̞́͑ͥrs ̗͌I ̼͔ͥ̿ef̻̞͖̋̇̔f̝ͬ͆ͅort͍̬̠̀͐̚less̪̹̟̔̽ͦl̲y ̝͉̤c͉rùͧs̖h ̮̘̃͊aǹ̤̠̘͊͂d̓ͯ ̄͊ͩd͎̝i̲̲s̪͍ͮͧc̟̯̔ͦaͨr͓̾d ̠̃t̺he͓͋m̒ ̇l̟̝i̤̩͒̊kͯ͛ẻ̥ the͍̯͚͛̅̋ ̒ͪ͊p̱ͩ̚ͅȁ̪t̊ͥh̳̑e̺͙̦̐̂̚t̗̟̞ͫ͊̔i͇͉̫c ̺͙ͬ̉atte̤̦͒̄mp̟͐t̼̐s̪ ͭ̅̄t̺͉͌ͮh̏͊e̬̗̓ͦy ̙͖͓ͬ̒̓ar̠ͦe͙͚.͐" Ishi rumbled, her voice brimming with confidence. Far too much confidence.

"I̼̜̲̎̀̂'͚͐v͍̰͕e̤͈̙ ͕̠w̯̟͎ͦͮ̓a̾ͤr̘ne̖̘̗ͤ̔̚d̫̱̲͋̾͛ ̰ͪy̫̙ͨ̆o͖͈̞̍ͣ͑u̺̚ m͍any ṭi̼̲̙͐͊ͬm̮͔̏́es ͬP͖͖rȉ̼͈ͭn̠͗ce͓͗s̙̝͓̒̿ͬs ̃I̦̺ͩ̚s͒ḣî̼ t̘̅ͧͅȟ̳ḁ̱̐͒t y̞͖͖ͧ̌̊ou̹̒r ͔̩͖̍͗́o͇̗̺͗̇͊ve̤r̥͎c̮̗̲̎ͫ͛o̙̻ͣ̓nfĩd̏͊ͯḛ̙̲̔̓̍n̹̜ͬ̿c̟̩e̗ ͨw̿͛̄îͣ̐ĺ̄̒l ̠͍̲͗̀̎bĕ̟ ̻̓t͈̦ͫ̍h͍̟̝e͚̹͚ t͊̔͐hi̜̙n̼̠̯̄ͩͤg t̳͉h̬̰̐̔̇ͅa͑t͈̮ͨ̆ rͫe̥̠̰š͉̠̹ͫ̊ü̞̖̓l̻̬t͚s ͓̜ị͍n̼ ͂y̖̤o̜ͣu̝r̯̗̤̽̀̀ d͓͔̥ͨ̀̍e̝mi̗͖̺s̫̝͍̓͐̆e̫͈ͦͧ. ̭̯Yo͚ụ̬ͭͤ ͕̦͔ͥ̇͊may̜̖ͥ̓̔ͅ ́̈̃fee̳͎͚͂͊ͦl ̞̝̞̄͒̂i̳̜͋ͮn̘̪̲ͨ̇̔v̫̬̤̌̉͂iṅ̠cibl̻̲̓̓e̩̘̎̑ b̹̬ͪͨu̥̲̜ͥ͒ͣt̝̤ ͙̟̥y̞ͩo̫̣ͧͤur͕̻̅ͬ n͍̯̞ǒ̯̦̫̆ͨt,͚͋ ̹͛o̼̣̘n̽̈̚eͪ́͐ o̳̫̲̍͊̀f t̟̑h͍͉̮ͮͭ̓ese ͍͇̩̉̒͗da͇̝͒ͪys ͔͕͍̈́́̂yoù̦̟̖̓̋'̬̓l͗l ̋̄eǹ̪count̠͉͚ͬͦͣe̎r̭̜͔ ̗̪͔s͗o̝̳m͔̳ȅt̬̪͍ͨͧ͆h̰̲̬i̊͌nͥg̲ ̊ͮt̺̙ͧ̀h̞͖͋̃åͩt ̝̳͔ͨͪ̂w͍̟ͭͩil̇l̯̺ ͥͅb͕̠͈͆͂̉e ̀q̲̼͂̊uì̠͙͍͌͋c̬̀k ̜͙̃͐t̅o͚̒ ̺̪͎͛̚̚r͇̺̬̎̇̑ë̯͇̞́̄ͣm̅i̞̟n͎̻̩d y͔̱̦̎̐͑o̬̹̐́ú͔̩͕͑́ ͔th͑̈ͩa̰̟̝͐̎̂t̘̜̎̓ y̠͌̈́ͅo̞̙͙ͬ̓ͬu ̪͉͔ͤ̅ͦḁ̾re m̞͉̲or̓ͫẗ̬́a̻͚ͬ͂ͪͅl̘͖̘̋̊ͫ.̽̎̚" The Queen said in a sharp tone.

"S̟̘̅̄orr͈ͤ̈́ͅy͕ ̂̃̇my ͕̻ͫ̌Q̝͕̖̂̅͒ueen̔̄,͇̔ i̱͛t'̰̣s͉̯͂̌ ̎̊̊j͌̀ͥus͓̺ͤ̈t I ̫͍̓̅priͨdͩͥͯe̠̮̘ m̺̜y̯̦̺̆͊̚s͈͇̏̍e̮͛l̘̝̺̎̈́̚f̗̭ͅ ͌̔o̼n ̬͇̂̇m̍ͤa͕ͭi̬ͧnt̺̬͖ã̞iṅ͕͇ͩ͗ͅinͮ̈̚g ͦ̏̚the̺ͧ ̱͖u͛ͅppe͙ͣr͚̦͙ͬ̅̋ ͖ͦh̿̄͑a̭n͖͆d̺̹̈́̅ ͭi̺͔͆ͨn͊̂̊ ͎̜̅͑t̩ͯhͮis̐ ͪͨme̲̤̦͗ͮ̃nt̪̼̋̍̅ͅaͫl̑ ̻̈́ś͋t̜rͤug̭gl̯̞̍̚e̘̲ͯͮ ͛͒̅but͔̞̳ ̎̊͗h̤̮ͩ͊er̯̖̝ ͕̣̫a͐t͉̺tem͋p͉͔͉t̼̥ŝ̻̯̒ ̠͕͚t͓̗̲ͩ̃̚õ͉ rḙ̞̘͌͑͌gai͕͔͕n̟̪͍ ̘͙͕co͇̔n̜̭͒̚tr̙̜͌͛o͖̫͊̐̋ͅḷ̼͆̋ ̻̜̠́̎͛aͤ͗re̺̽ g̮̬͕ͧ͂̅et̤̲ͩ̽t͔͍ͪ̃̅ͅing̘̭ͧ̇ ḽ̝e̙̩ss̲͆ ̰̭̮ͧͦ̈d͓̟̜ͦ̒̓et̬͂eͣͪ͑rm̼ͩin̟̊ed̫̋̅ͅ ͕̻̣̃ͩ̚a̗͋s͙ ̑̅i͍̺̓ͤf͇ she͖'̬ͣș̝̜ ̃ͭ͌f̰̥ͭͤͮͅi̗n̮ạll̪̜y ̯̭ͨ̿aͨ̆ccḙ̱̥̿̔ͭp̒ti͉ͧn̯ͦg͎̤̮ ̲̱̜͒̄̿ṭ͂hat͋͗̔ ṣ͇͙̎̾́h̭̘̟e͑'̖̿s ̟̌just ̜͖̠̓͋̇a͋̔ͣḻ̜̅̚o̱̩̞͑̈́̈́ng̮̟̓́ fór̳ͩ t̮h̀ͧe ̺ͫri̤̯ͥ́̊ͅde." Ishi said with grin composed of wickedly sharp fangs and incisors.

"I̜̝̓̐̇ͅ se̽e̖̲̟,̾ͫ ͎͑a͔̐ḽ̠͋̃r̳̃ig̮̓ḫ̉tͦ.ͥ ͨ̆Ṕ̹rͯ͛i̯͕͓nc̞̻͙e͕ss ̩̤̘ͤͩ̍I̼͓̳͌̽̑sẖ̲͍̑̐̃i͕̗̞͗͗̚, ͖͐t̤͙ͦͮhe͕̣ͅ ̼̩d̮̝̪ͧ̓ͩay̒͌ͨ ̱̋h͖̮̼̅̊ͩa̪̞̩ͦ͛̈ś͈̟͆ ̣̙̅͌f̿i̓n͌al̆͛̀l̰̱̅̑y͂ͦ͋ ̳̹̃ͯc͈͇ͅo̘̰m̭̞̏́e̥ ͔̖̋̏f͙͖͈͋ͯ̐or̅̽ yọ̬u t̟o̊ͥ̋ ̲̫̘̾ͩ͂le̘͎a̯d yő̬u̞̠͋ͨr o̐̅w͉̱̒́ň̟̫̹ͥ̂ m͊͑̚is̖s̹̰ḭ̐oṋ̖̽̽.ͯ ͉͓̩ͣ͂͌Y͂o̠͉̤ͯͬ̎u̺r̺ͪ̅ͅ ͔͚̝̌͛̂ṭo͐͊ ̰̅ṭ̓a̮ḵ̪͗̃e͖͚͗̉ an es̊̚cort ̣̖f̳͇͔́̽̌l͔̤̺͛̍̂eeͥ̚t̿̌ ̠̣͗͒cͫ͒͂om̗̙̞̎̈́͋p͕͚͈o̻͈s͉̪ͨ͊e̱̤ͩͭd of ̺̅t̂̏ͫw̥̭͕͒ͪͦeͧ̊̄l̼̤̊̚v̲ͫe̗ _͇͔̳̾͒ͩP̼̳̟̀̇̎r͆̀eͅdat̥̹͓ͫ̋ͯor̗̪̬͆͊ͬ_ cl̔ͭas̙ͧs̩̱̦ ̞ͨLa̟͔te̱̹̲̾̇̚ ͧ͌̋M̖ͯoḋ͊e͌l̞͖ D̳̹̣̎͊̈́ê̞͈̑s̥̯̹t̑͑r̋̾oͦy̲e̼̗r͇̥͑̎s* ̳̭an̜̦̓ͣd̻̼ͮͧ ̞͉̅̚t̠̍ḧree̔ͧ _̭̚D̩̄eso͉͈l͖̱̖͌̾̈́at̝̬ó̾r̀_ ̹͍͒ͦcl̲̝̓̔͛ͅa͍̭̺̽ͦͨs̿ͅs̠ͬ Li̺̘̿ͮgh̫̺̬t ̜̂C͈͎ͤ̾r̞̎u͌̉ͦi͎̞̰͛̀̈se̼̳͎͒ͦ̚rs̬͍̆̿*,̾ ̿̽y̎ou'̗̜l͔͖̐͗l̯̊ ̬͍̂̽b̦̱é͋ ̮e̋ͣ̄s̯̱̫͐́ͣc̺̙ort̻̲̑ͤi̾n̟̫̥̉ͪ͐g̦̩͗͆ tw̥en̮ͣty̥̿ ̝̟̅ͧȀ̝t̲̠͚͆͑͌tà̞̺͍͛̐ck͚̠̤ ̝͔T̬͖ͩ̌ͧͅr̺̘ͩ͗a͈̯̘ṇͦsͧ̽ͫpo̫͚̗ͧͩ̈́rͣ̅̿t̬̬s ̺̗̜an̮̘̹̉ͪ͋ḋ͈͎̤ͩ̓ ̺̥̜s͂ͪeve͈͚̿͗n̲͔̪͂̂ͧ ͕ͪḺͮa̘ͪndi̲̜͉̽̈́ͫn̝͖ͥͮg̉̓ ͖̯ͮ̅S̜̳̒͊hi͕͚̰͛͂̃p̦̺ Ṯ̏an͙̲̥k͔̼̗ͮ̅ͯs̰̣͆͌ ̟͓̗̉͐̈́t̗o̤̔ ͓̹̘ͫ̂ͪt̖͗h͍ͧe ͇̋human̲͕̦̓̐́ ̺̣ͧ͂h̦̉el̞̝͂ͤd̝͈̋̍ ̺͕̿̽i̺̽sl̬̠̎͋a͓̯̥͒͆͌nd̞̜̮ͩ̌͛ ̱̪̩͊̇̌o̱̓͂̏ͅͅf̝ͩ Ta̮͇ͮͪi̦̹̲̒̅̑wͫͧͥan̞̓.̀̄ ̯͚̺ͦ̆ͭYo̦͇̖u̥̼ͨ̊͌ͅ ͇͕̘̂̋̏a͛ͨr̯ͮe ͕to̹̦͆̃ ͧ̒̇co̦̻̗m̲̄m̫̼̆͒e̲͑n͙̟̉̄ceͨͤͧ g̮̓r͚͕͋̌ou͗ͭn̲̱͊ͦd ̠̎oͦp̰̳͐̌erȃ͛̿t̺̹ͪ͆i̜̤̝̊ͯ̽ọns ͋ͨ̀a͖n͉̥̒̉dͧ ͉̲̩̿̋͊pro͕vidi͎̿n̂g͇̽͊ͅ ̣ͨnaṿa͈l͚͖̅̑ ͦgȕ̫̭̳ͤͭn̓̃fî͉r͈̪e ̙̹ͫ͒s̲ͨuͤ̚ppoř̲t̓ͤ." The Queen intoned and the Tiger growled.

"Ā̤̗͚̂̂s̭̎ ͎͖̰̒ͦ̉y̪̹ou ̙̯̣̿̾̎co͇̹m̬̺ma̿̃͊n͙̈d my̰̯̮̍͒ͩ ͛̄Q̉̀ͮu̫ͬḙ̟e̪̮n,̰̣ͤ̾ ̭̳͙͌̉̿i̫͕̐̍t̯̤͐̃ ̤s͇̞͐̉h̻all̩̟̐ͮ b̭͑ė̠ ͚d͈̝ͣ̃o̲̤ͭ̑n͖̤̙̈́ͤ̓e̠ͬ." Ishi said, stooping slightly.

"Ë̦̫̮́̐ͪx̼c̪̳͋ͫe̹̘͈͊̓̎ll̮e͕̬n͉̰̝ͪͥͯt͎̜̞̅ͬ͂ ̦̾n̳̺̏̃o̩̜̮w͆̏̃ go."

Without a sound, Ishi stood up and strood out of the chamber. She quickly marched down to the harbor to where her hull waited at one point it had been a _Mutsuki_ class hull but not anymore the hull had been lengthened from three hundred thirty seven feet to four hundred fifty feet, widened from thirty feet to forty feet, and deepened from nine-point-seven feet to twelve-point-five feet.

Other visual changes included the original plumb bow getting replaced with a curved bow, the drastic shortening of the forward well deck from well over thirty feet to a mere ten feet along with the removal of the number one torpedo mount, this allowed for both the number one gun to be converted into a twin DP mount and for a second such mount and barbette to be installed in a superfiring position, the pilothouse ironically hadn't changed that much despite all of the changes made, the mast and funnel design remained unchanged as well, although the funnels were now spread a little farther apart, the number two gun mount and it's gun tub had been removed in its entirety along with the supports in its place now rested a lethal looking sextuple torpedo mount while directly aft flanking the number one funnel was two large boxes each containing three torpedoes, on an elevated platform that wrapped around the front of the second funnel was the searchlight, aft of that platform was six torpedo reload containers, aft of that was a sextuple torpedo launcher, which directly aft of the launcher was enlarged aft deck house with two main battery mounts on it with one facing forward and the other facing aft in the middle of the deckhouse structure was the aft mast directly between the turrets, directly aft of the deckhouse was a fifth turret, this was followed by the depth charges, and scattered about was a smattering of AA mounts. Not to mention, all of the main battery guns were much bigger than what the ship had been originally armed with, 135mm guns.

The hull gleamed as black as a nightmare with chitin like growths marking the waterline, the masts however glistened a sharp blood red that was so fresh it was almost like it was painted in actual blood, while portholes and pilothouse windows glowed a deep purple, the aft funnel had two thick stripes of dark blue bioluminescence glowing softly.

Ishi smiled at the sight of the warship, unlike the majority of the other naval Abyssal Princesses whose hulls only manifested when they summoned their outfit in order to travel the seas, the exception generally being the first Abyssal Princess of it's type or more unique Abyssal Princesses like the tratrious Northern Princess. However the reason that she didn't have an outfit was thanks to the method of her creation and how thanks to the weak but determined efforts of the Kanmusu she had been in resisting Abyssalization combined with her injuries/damages, no outfit could be properly bonded to her thus an actual ship needed to be built for her. Not that she minded, it allowed for a better connection with what she represented.

She strood onto the deck, marched under the amidships deckhouse, then climbed up the ladder to the pilothouse. Inside several menials manned the few stations that were on the bridge. It made her smile widen slightly and now came the simple part, with clattering rumble the blowers came to life. One of them turned to face her and it spoke in a rasping and grating voice. "W̗͇̣e͉̥̼̔̋ͩ're͎ rͫe̯̦̪͑́͐ady tͣ̚o͉͍ ̯̄s͔̰e͚̪͖t͕̗͛ͯ ͐ͤ̒sai͗l̾̒ ̩͕̌ͥa͚̋t̟͖ ̭̬̞̃ͪ̂ý͔̻̰̔̃ô̗͇͐ủ̹̟̊ ̲͎͆ͤc̞͇ͪ͂o̝̘m̲͙͒̃m̬̂a̗̝͕͐͒̓nd̗̗̂ͨ ̲͎ͫ̑̿ͅMi͖͍ͭͮ̉ͅs̠̅ṯ͇͒ͥr̫e̻͉͈s͍̺͇ͣ͊̓s̤̻͑͛ͦͅ.̼̗"

Ishi grinned. "E̥̫̫x͑ͫͦcelͯ͌lĕ̊n̟̳̩t̊̿̈, ͖ta̺̹k͓̣̇ͪe͖͔͈͌ͧͤ ̜̜͋̏ị̗̯̉͛̈́n͍̒ ̪̼̂̇a̗̙̓͆l̩͈̑̃l͚̰̈͒ ̾͌l̎ͯ͛iṋ̐es,̱͖̜ w͎̐e̗i͍̍g̱̗͋ͫh ̙ancho͂̈r̝͈͍.͕̳.͓̂ E͛̍͐n̊ͩgi̤̹͙ͯ̇̔n̼̼͓̐͂̂es͍ ̗̄ahͩ̆eaͨͅd͑̿̆ ̻̙̤ǒ̮̦͌n̺̽ḙͮ ͓͕͔̅̉ͤtͮͦh̙̪̽̽ìrd͔̮̊́.̞"

"Y̆̌̄e̯͚ͦͮs̃ͥ̇ ̲̓Mi̱͈ͧ̈́s̽ͤt̅̎̀ȓ̮̭̃es̰ͨs̩͖̪ͨ͛̈,̲̼͔͛̽͐ t̔ȁ͚k̇i͍͂n̉ͤg in al̯͛l̏͑̄ ̬̱̣̂ͣ̇l̫i̯̻̘ͫ̂̚ne̦s̭̼ͭͭ,̱͖̜ w͎̐e̗i͍̍g̱̗͋ͫh ̙ancho͂̈r̝͈͍.͕̳.ͩ͋̓ ͉̘͌ͧE̤̅n̮ͩg̥̔in̝̫͕e̩͛s ah̲͖ͩ͒e͔͐ad͕͚̅ͤ o̝̲̟ͩ̃̓n͋ͅe̋ ͯ͗thǐ̜ͣͅrͮ͒dͫͅ.͙͖͒̃ Aỵ̪̘̀ͮ̾e̔." The talker said before relaying the orders.

The crew expertly took in all lines, while with a metallic clattering the anchor chain went taut and the anchor came off the seabed. The moment that occurred, the blower's pitch shifted and the destroyer glided forward as the screws slashed at the water providing thrust.

The warship weaved sedately through the crowded harbor before assuming it's location at the head of the convoy. Then dozens of funnels from the transports belched smoke as one and the water frothed, slowly the convoy moved out. It's target Taiwan.

* * *

 **New World**

 **Outskirts of Baalkpan, near the Old Pipeline Cut**

 _It's so goddamned hot, I thought that Surabaya back home was hot. But this beats that by several orders of magnitude._ Yūdachi thought as she trudged along next to the remains of an old pipeline that marked the game trail they were on. In her hands was a powerful bolt-action rifle, something that she could use while hunting.

But Yūdachi had to admit, she was amazed by how easily Mr. Silva moved through underbrush. He moved with the ease of a man who was thirty years younger and considering that he was carrying a weapon that was absolutely massive. In fact judging by the barrel length she was certain that the monstrous weapon had started life as a Type 96 25mm AA gun barrel.

Silva suddenly froze and he motioned for her to go prone. "You see them?" he asked in a quiet voice.

Yūdachi looked at the clearing in front of them. At first she couldn't really tell but after wiping some of the sweat from her eyes and then squinting she was able to spot it or more specifically _them_. They were massive pigs, each the size of a Polar Bear, they had dark skin with short bristly hair. But the one thing that stood out to her the most besides the sheer size of the animals was the fact that just like rhinos, they had an immense ivory horn on top of their snouts. "I see them, poi. They're absolutely huge, poi." she said.

"Now you why they're called Rhino Pigs. Spooking them is a bad idea because they'll take off like a hot torpedo and as you can imagine that horn means bad news to the soft underbelly of a larger predator… or an unlucky hunter. Or they can just stomp you into paste because well they can weigh over a thousand pounds." Silva said as he gently opened the trap door breach on his rifle and then opened the cartridge box that was strapped firmly to his belt.

The cartridge was enormous, over a half foot in length and it was capped with an absolutely _massive_ projectile that had a bronze penetrator cap situated on top of the metallic case, gleaming dully in the light. "P-poi?" she asked in amazement staring at the massive round.

"What this?" Silva asked and Yūdachi nodded in response. The big man smiled, and when he spoke it was with the reverence of a man introducing a prized car. "This here is a 100-caliber, 2100-grain projectile sitting atop three hundred grains of fine black powder. This thing can go through multiple Rhino Pigs before stopping and is probably the only round in the world that can drop a Super Lizard in less than five shots. I've been firing this gun for over seventy years, it almost never misfires and is as accurate as death itself." Silva explained as he patted the rifle lovingly.

Then he calmly slipped the round into the rifle and closed the breach. He then carefully eased the weapon forward and took aim. Something clicked in the Kanmusu's mind however when he mentioned the caliber of the projectile. "100-caliber, poi? Your telling me that monster fires a 25mm projectile?!" she asked stunned.

Silva grinned. "Yep, this baby started life as the barrel of a Type 96 25mm AA gun. I built the thing so that I wouldn't have to go up against a Super-Lizard using .30-06 again. Those things absorb that caliber like a sponge, why do you think the standard rifle caliber around here is so big?" he said.

"Wait, how can you handle the recoil, poi? Wouldn't it thoroughly wreck your shoulder, poi?" Yūdachi asked surprised.

Silva grunted. "Considering how long I've been shooting this gun, if it was going to wreck my shoulder it would've done so already. But it is impossible to fire from even a kneeling position. First time I did so, the recoil put me on my ass." he said aiming carefully.

Yūdachi noticed that Silva was aiming at the closest Rhino Pig, the biggest one of the lot. However even after sighting up the animal, he didn't immediately pull the trigger. Instead he seemed to be lining up the shot so that it would hit as many of the Rhino Pigs as possible.

Sliva started muttering sourly in Lemurian, it was a completely foreign dialect to her but she had taken some lessons. Although the pronunciation was a little strange and somewhat difficult for humans, but now that she thought about it, the Lemurian language sounded awfully similar to what Walker would say when something really pissed her off or surprised the hell out of her.

"What's wrong, poi?"

"I'll only be able to hit three, maybe four of them with one shot. Plus when I fire, they'll all bolt meaning that I will only get one shot at this. Oh well, I don't mind it though, means we have to spend less time in this heat." Silva said before steadying his breath.

Yūdachi was still caught off guard when Silva fired. The immense rifle emitted a furious booming roar and vomited an immense tongue of flame and white smoke. The weapon heaved backwards and an instant later, the pained and surprised squeals of Rhino Pigs as well as the thunder of feet in all directions as they scattered. Through the haze of smoke, one of the animals charged directly at the spot where the two of them were. In a flash the rifle was firmly planted against her shoulder, she aimed directly at its snout and pulled the trigger.

With an ear-splitting _crack_ , the rifle bucked and the charging pig dropped onto its side. The powerful round having ripped through the animal's snout and into the brain case, killing it instantly.

"Hot damn! Nice shot, haven't seen anyone fire a shot fast enough to stop a charging Rhino Pig since Moe stuck one with his crossbow back in 1943." Silva praised as he stood up and gave Yūdachi a pat on the back causing her to stumble ever so slightly.

Silva stood up, opened the breach and the smoking spent cartridge ejected itself from the weapon. The big man opened his cartridge box and slipped a fresh cartridge inside the breach before closing and locking it. He then signaled for the Japanese Destroyer turned pre-teen to follow him, already the basket bearers; the ones who would clean Rhino Pigs that lay dead on the ground.

Yūdachi worked the bolt on her rifle, ejecting the spent cartridge and chambering a new one. She had to admit, the .50-80 cartridge had one hell of a kick but the stopping power was nice to have. The bolt-action rifle felt solid in her hands, having a pistol grip didn't hurt either for it made the thing easier to control.

The massive projectile that Silva had fired had cored through four Rhino Pigs with as much ease as her own 5in/50 caliber guns against wooden hulled PT boats and then had clipped a real unfortunate bastard leaving a deep bloody gash in the animal's flank. The moment Silva had seen the animal lying on its belly, he yanked his Browning pistol out of it's holster and promptly without fanfare shot the creature once in the eye.

"What the hell did you do that for, poi?!" Yūdachi yelled stunned as Silva calmly reholstered his pistol.

"If you see a Rhino Pig that's laying on it's belly after you've shot it. The bastard is waiting for you to get close enough so it can disembowel you with its horn. Take you with it even as it dies." Silva explained after rubbing his ears and shaking his head to likely get the slight ringing from her shout out of them.

The surprise, anger, and outrage that the Japanese Kanmusu had been feeling vanished as quickly as an ice cube being tossed into a lit boiler. She hadn't actually looked at it that way and now that she had a different perspective realized that Mr. Silva had been correct in what he had done and in fact it had probably been a mercy for the poor creature.

As they waited for the basket bearers to finish with their work and the sun got progressively higher in the sky, there was nothing for the two hunters to do but wait. The bearers had nearly finished with their work when Yūdachi suddenly tensed up and looked at Silva.

The gunner's mate noticed that she had tensed almost immediately. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"I don't know, but I all of a sudden just got the feeling that we are being watched, poi." She said in a hushed and subdued voice.

"Ah shit, not good then. Usually predators get spooked whenever I fire the ol' Doom Stomper, same with scavengers. But, there's one predator that isn't spooked by the sound of my favorite gun firing. Mr. Bradford said that they are related to Allosauruses of the Jurassic era which was God only knows how many millions of years ago." Silva said bringing his rifle, not quite to the ready position but close to it.

"Wait, you mean actual legitimate _dinosaurs_?" Yūdachi asked, the shock and surprise that she was so feeling was so evident in her voice that she actually forgot her verbal tic.

"Damn straight, if anything they are actually bigger than the Allosauruses that roamed the Earth millions of years ago. They are the supreme apex predators in this part of the world, although they are even _bigger_ in the Americas." Silva said, carefully eyeing the edge of clearing with a hawk like gaze.

Yūdachi kept her gaze focused as well. This feeling of being hunted by an apex predator had her uneasy, she wasn't supposed to be scared but dammit the idea of something being capable of actually _eating_ her was downright terrifying.

Thus it was completely understandable that she shook with fear when she spotted something amiss in the green foliage and underbrush. Two trunks probably about a hundred maybe a hundred fifty meters away didn't quite match the others. The difference was subtle, to the point that something like the Rhino Pigs or an unsuspecting Lemurian or Human wouldn't notice the difference until it was too late and they had wandered right into the waiting jaws of the predator. She began to level her rifle at the area when something happened that she would never forget.

With a terrifying, bone-rattling, ear splitting roar, an enormous bipedal lizard rushed into the clearing right towards the bearers. "Holy sweet Jesus Christ!" Silva roared as he instantly took a knee and aimed at the monstrous predator.

The bearers either locked up in terror or bolted running for the opposite treeline. Desperately trying to get away from the, well, _dinosaur_. Yūdachi for her part froze as well, trying to comprehend what she was seeing. Nothing could be that massive, yet move so quickly not to mention what the thing was had been extinct for millions of years!

The thing lunged forward it's jaws agape revealing razor sharp teeth and with effortless ease snatched one of the basket bearers, a Lemurian off it's feet. The unfortunate being shrieked in absolute terror and pain as the predator thrashed it's head wildly before snapping it's head back and clamping down again. This time there was a sickening crunching sound as bones broke from the immense bite force that was put on the poor Lemurian and the screams stopped. The massive lizard jerked it's head back again and swallowed. Then turned to face Yūdachi who was still frozen stiff from fear and surprise.

The roar of Silva's rifle caused her to startle and the beast staggered under some great impact. Blood erupted from the pocket of the beast's armpit as the massive 25mm slug ripped through it with extreme ease. It took an unsteady step towards her and that was all the prompting she needed to finish bringing her rifle, shaking in her grip to her shoulder and open fire.

The first three rounds went wide while her fourth round slammed into the animal square in the head, causing one of the bony ridges atop it's skull to shatter as the powerful slug punched through it and then carved a noticeable gash across the side of it's head. Without a thought given to even counting the number of rounds she had fired, she closed bolt and then steadied her breath. The weapon steadied itself and the massive predator was now glaring at her, ignoring the immense wound in it's flank. Yūdachi narrowed her eyes at the animal, settled the sights on the thing's right eye and then pulled the trigger.

All she got was a feeble sounding _click_. For the first time in her life since her first battle after being summoned, Yūdachi felt not fear but pure _primal_ **terror**. Her body shook involuntarily and a whimper escaped her lips.

Then with one final angry glare at her, the light-bulb in the massive predator's brain went out and it fell to the ground with a resounding crash.

Yūdachi sat down heavily, her rifle falling to the ground beside her as it slipped out of grip. Tears welled up in her eyes as the enormity of what had just occurred and she sobbed. Burying her face in hands as the realization that she could've been killed in a particularly horrific way.

A pair of firm hands clasped her shoulders and hauled her up and a gruff yet soothing voice reached her ears. "It's alright, calm down. It's gone, that thing won't hurt you. I promise." Silva says as with one hand he rubs soft circles into her back.

Several minutes later, Silva looks firmly into Yūdachi's eyes. "You good?" he asked.

Despite herself, Yūdachi figured she'd be okay long enough to get back to the Naval Base. Then tell Mr. Silva how she really felt right now and to also let him know that she wanted to know if there was any place where their weren't dinosaurs that could eat someone on this world.

* * *

 **USS** _ **Naga**_ **DD-505**

 **Enroute to Baalkpan Naval Base**

Lieutenant Commander Jaaret-Shaan didn't consider himself superstitious, at least not overly so. Even so, as he came down the sharply angled stairs and made for the Wardroom he would be the first to admit that the idea of the soul of a ship being reincarnated was new to him. Right now, he needed some coffee because of the fact that he needed to stretch his legs and wanted to see how there guests were doing.

When he walked into the Wardroom, he saw three things that surprised him. Their was the Marine guard which he had expected to see came to attention. Their Navy Blue kilt, White armor, Black Combat Boots, black combat webbing, and a bronze helmet (electroplated bronze now instead of being made of bronze) was very distinctive and recognizable the world over.

"As you were." Jaaret said and the marine relaxed.

What he didn't expect though was to see that someone had setup a small cot in one corner of the Wardroom and that three of their guests were passed out atop of it, snuggling together. The second thing that surprised him was that sitting atop one of the counters that lined one side of the Wardroom was a dark grey painted doughboy helmet, an old design of cartridge belt, cartridge belt suspenders, a pistol holster with pistol, and a cutlass scabbard with cutlass. Jaaret glanced at the Marine wondering why she'd been allowed to keep the weapons.

"The pistol is not chambered and isn't loaded." He said and Jaaret nodded in understanding.

The third and final thing however was that their fourth guest was sitting forlornly atop one of the stools around the main table in the Wardroom, her bronze doughboy helmet resting upon the wooden table, while clutched firmly in hands was a bottle of some sort with a red and white label. The sheer mood around her was so somber that he could practically taste it.

Jaaret sighed, he then strode to the speaking tube for the bridge. "Bridge this is the Captain." he said.

" _Bridge here, what is it, sir?_ " Andrea replied.

"I am going to be spending a little extra time down here. One of our guests, Waa-kur I believe is looking a little down. Going to be seeing why that is." Jaaret said.

" _Affirmative, sir._ " Andrea said.

Jaaret then poured himself a mug of coffee and then sat down next to the legendary ship. He had to admit, this felt weird mainly because he was about to have a conversation with the soul of the most revered and legendary ship in the entire Union of Homes Navy, not something he expected to happen in his life, ever.

"Captain." Waa-kur greeted, her tone flat and sorrowful.

"Waa-kur." Jaaret replied.

Waa-kur for her part sighed deeply and then thumbed a picture that was on the table. The image in question was a group shot, composed of fifteen younglings who were all about her age. Thirteen of the girls in question were wearing forest green Tunics and Trousers as well as black combat boots plus dark grey painted Doughboy helmets which complimented the wide variety of combat webbing that they wore. Two of them however wore Khaki coats and breeches plus only one of them actually had a dark grey painted helmet. The other one in Khaki had a bronze helmet.

Jaaret blinked as he realized what this image likely was. "This your unit?" he asked gesturing to the image.

Waa-kur brightened slightly. "Yes Captain, it is. DESRON 29, one of the ten or twelve Destroyer Kanmusu Squadrons composed entirely of Four-Stackers. Thirteen _Clemson_ class Kanmusu and two _Wickes_ class Kanmusu, DESRON 29 is special because it's one of only two Four-Stacker Kanmusu RONs that's actually a frontline combat unit. The others are on convoy duty, to be frank before someone managed to dig out the old papers for DESRON 29 we were actually on convoy duty too. I didn't mind though, it was nice and easy work." she said.

"So which Destroyer Division were you in?" Jaaret asked and almost immediately regretted it as Waa-kur's face fell and tears appeared in the corners of her sharp green eyes.

"DESDIV 59." Waa-kur said sadly as she traced her finger along a group of five. There was four of the _Clemson_ class in a line with the legendary ship. The _Wickes_ class had silent tears carve tracks down her face as she gestured to one of the "younger" Kanmusu. "That's Pope, she was my XO. She made me feel welcome after my summoning and we were basically inseparable because I was the second member of my DESDIV to return, Pope was the first. She was sunk in the battle that resulted in us going through the squall and when I tried to save her what did Pope do? She ordered me to run for my life!" Waa-kur said with a sob.

"So you feel like your responsible for her death?" Jaaret asked before blinking apology when he realized just how stupid the question was.

"It's alright Captain. Truth be told, I do feel responsible for Pope's death. She ordered me to run like the devil was behind me. Which considering that we had Abyssal Heavy Cruisers behind us, in the time that it would've taken me to circle around, pick her up and then start running like hell. They would've caught us and not only would've Pope been killed but I would've been killed too. But, even though she ordered me to run, I still feel responsible for abandoning her to her fate." Waa-kur said, sobbing slightly.

Jaaret looked thoughtful for a moment. "Abyssaals, what are those?" he asked his tone curious.

"It's hard to explain, personally I'll just spare you the trouble and wait until we get to port and then explain it to the spooks." Waa-kur said quietly before drinking deeply from the bottle she was holding.

Jaaret accepted that, made sense he supposed. Regardless he felt the need to look deeper into why Waa-kur felt responsible for abandoning her XO. "I wonder why you feel responsible for leaving Pope to die?" he asked.

Waa-kur sniffled, it was something Jaaret mused. Seeing the incarnation of the soul of such a legendary warship look so, vulnerable. "Has to do with my past and the events that occurred, to before the Battle of Baalkpan Bay. I know the reason quite well as for why I am like this, not that I can help it. The Loss of _Nerracca_ , my failure to tow her to safety has haunted me ever since that terrible night. I am proud about the number of People that I saved but on the other hand all I can think about is the _tens of thousands_ that I was forced leave behind to either be taken by the flames from above or the lethal seas below. _Nerracca_ had been the youngest Home that I ever met during the War against the Grik, forty seasons in age. God, it broke my heart to tell _Arracca_ what had happened and how I had _failed_ to keep _Nerracca_ safe like I had promised." she said, tears falling freely down her face.

"What were they like?" Jaaret asked in a soothing tone.

"Who?" Waa-kur asked surprised.

"The battle line of the Allied Expeditionary Force, _Salissa_ , _Arracca_ , _Nerracca_ , _Humfra-Dar_ , and _Fristar_. What were they like, just wondering out of curiosity." Jaaret replied in a calm and soothing tone.

Despite himself, Jaaret would admit that he was surprised when Waa-kur giggled. "They were a unique bunch, after I saved _Salissa_ from the Grik she had declared us Blood Sisters, that threw me through a loop. But she was like a big sister and whenever I got hurt in an action she would fret about me, hell she was worried and even a little jealous when I told her that I would be accompanying _Achilles_ to the New British Islands. God, when I found out that a Strakka in eighties had driven her so hard aground on the island of Krakatoa that she was wrecked, it was hard to take in, was surprised that Keje survived that though. _Arracca_ , however was very motherly and very protective of those around her, but after _Nerracca_ bought it she was deeply saddened and was never the same again. It was hard to take in after I heard what happened to her during the Battle of the Bone River, shot to hell and then she got set afire, and eventually blew up. _Nerracca_ reminded me an awful lot like a ship that had only been completed just a few years ago back then, always eager to please. It made that goddamned Jap battlecruiser shelling her into an inferno while I could do _nothing_ in response only in retaliation that much harder to bear. _Humfra-Dar_ was rather stoic, only speaking when spoken too." Waa-kur chuckled as something amusing crossed her mind. "It became something of a game to the Feluccas to try and get a rise out of her. Learning that she had been sunk by Grik Zeppelins and that she had exploded in a way similar to _Arizona_ at the start of World War II back home had been shocking more than anything. Ironically despite _Fristar_ 's High Chief being the largest proponent of the "Why don't we sail where there is no Grik" crowd, _Fristar_ herself was anything _but_ that. If anything she was a warrior through and through, she was quite pleased with herself after she sat on _Hidoiame_. I heard that someone actually painted a silhouette of the Jap 'Can on her battlement. To my knowledge she's still around and thus is the only survivor of the Allied Expeditionary Force battle line. The war claimed three of them, a storm claimed the fourth, and the fifth member is still alive." she finished her tone somber.

Jaaret put an arm across her shoulder. "You miss them, don't you?" he asked.

"Very much so, I mean now there's a chance that I can see them again. But I don't know how long that will be until that happens, yet I won't be able to see Pope or any of my RON-mates with the exception of Mahan again." Waa-kur said her tone still wistful and sad.

Jaaret twisted on his stool and quickly spotted the other Four-Piper. One of the other "ship girls" as Waa-kur had said they were called, whimpered and shook in her sleep. Almost immediately the arm that Mahaan had draped across her tightened reassuredly.

"Who are the other two? I didn't catch their names when you lot were piped aboard." Jaaret asked.

Waa-kur smiled. "They're both Japanese, but that's because the War ended a long time ago and the moment I came to this World for the first time, WWII for me ended. Anyway, the one in the somewhat tattered sailor uniform with the black hair is Fubuki, means Blizzard in case you're wondering. The one with the dark pink hair and the hospital gown is Mutsuki, means January in case your wondering. They're both good friends, but they both have their own demons that taunt them in the night. Just like I do, but considering our histories I am not surprised." she said, gesturing to them.

Jaaret gave the two ship girls that Waa-kur indicated and quickly connected the dots. "I see, what you mean. Must be hard then, being a ship girl." Jaaret said.

To his surprise Waa-kur laughed quietly. "It's not all bad, first time I set sail. I was so incredibly giddy to discover that I could reach thirty-six knots or so again. I hadn't been able to go that fast in _years_. It was a good feeling to go that fast again, a thrill that never got old. Plus their was the fact that all of the stuff that had been useless but now worked. That was another pleasant surprise, not only that I was reunited with old comrades and even made new friends. Not to mention the various adventures that I've gone on with my friends and comrades." she said with a grin.

Made sense Jaaret supposed, given what he knew about the history of the destroyer sitting in front of him, she hadn't gone faster than thirty knots ever during her time here. Then she said something that surprised the hell out of him. "I am just grateful that Silva is still around, none of my past crew members were still alive back home. At least one member of my crew is still alive, my Grik War crew. As far as I know though, Captain Reddy and Lady Sandra are still alive. So is Tabby as well as six or seven of the Ex-pat Imperial Girls." she laughed heartily now. "You should've seen the look that the CNO, SECNAV, as well as several different Kanmusu Admirals gave me when I told them _that_. Apparently I was the first ship in the United States Navy to have both genders as part of my crew who weren't nurses." she said.

Despite himself Jaaret laughed heartily as well, even the Marine guard chuckled in response. It was a good feeling, seeing her slowly perk up.

* * *

 _June 14th, 2030_

 _City of Gran Rugio_

On the other side of the world, stood the glittering city of Gran Rugio. It was nestled up against the coastline, rebuilt on the ruins of Nuevo Granada and the Holy Dominion of old, the Holy Spanish Imperium had been the result of the war that had started ninety-two years ago. The undisputed power of the Church had been shattered, throwing the shackles off the nation and its inhabitants allowing for not only a prosperous city but also a prosperous country to take root. This was shown in the city buildings which were wildly varied in their construction, most of the buildings around downtown are mostly brick or stone in construction. But downtown is different, buildings of concrete, steel, and glass rise majestically upward over the city, in a few cases over a thousand feet in height. The city's harbor is one of the largest in the world, a proud deep water port capable of handling nearly anything.

Sadly their were dissenters, those who wished for the Holy Dominion, one of the most horrific governments to ever exist to return. Most of these were the descendants of the few Blood Cardinals and other high ranking members of the True Church that had survived the purges that had ended True Church's reign. But they had other supporters as well, several within the Army, Navy, and Air Force plus a couple of more within the right positions in the government.

At the moment though, the first phase of the coup was about to commence. A single _Venganza_ class Grand Cruiser prowled into the harbor, with powerful and prideful purpose. The sleek warship had a raked bow and a slightly rounded transom stern with a waterline length of one hundred ninety-five meters, while three turrets, one forward and two aft, each containing three immense ten-and-half inch guns marked out the ship's primary battery, the superstructure had an industrious beauty to it and was studded with multiple four-and-half inch Dual Purpose guns as well as clip-fed 9-pounder AA guns with some of both emplaced on the deck, the ship's casemates were contained in a raised Quarter Deck that ran from just afore of the bridge positioning wise to afore the of the number two main battery turret these guns were six-and-half inch guns with each side having twelve guns this casemate gun deck sat flush with the hull, scattered across her superstructure and deck were multiple 1.5-pounders for close in AA guns.

" _We're clear of the harbor mouth, lookouts have spotted a ship approaching. She's signalling a challenge for identification. It's not the_ Nueva España _, it's the_ Defensor de la fe _._ " The bridge talker announced.

Capitán Joseph Mandarin cursed, so much for this being relatively bloodless. But the masterminds behind this ploy had decided to use his ship, the Spanish Imperium Ship _Perro Lobo_ to insert a loyal Inquisitor and her team of Devil Slayers so that they could storm the capitol building and pave the way for a new and proper government to take over.

He sighed again, there was going to be some bloodshed; that he knew but he just wished that he didn't have to take part in the blood shed. "Have Inquisitor Tareza Telles report to the bridge. Have the superstructure 9-pounders and the casemate battery manned, but do it quietly. Engines All Stop, flash our recognition number, when the _Defensor de la fe_ comes alongside and requests to send a party aboard. We'll open fire, the casemate battery will do so five seconds after the 9-pounders do. The nines will be targeting her bridge and superstructure." he ordered and smiled as his crew went about their tasks.

Two minutes later with dread he heard the words that he had been dreading to hear. "Inquisitor on the bridge!" someone called and everyone stood up, coming to attention and saluting sharply. With just the most subtle of nods, everyone relaxed and went back to their tasks.

"What's the problem Capitán?" Inquisitor Telles asked as she swept over to where he sat. He had to admit, Inquisitor Tareza Tellas was an imposing woman, standing at 5'5 ¾'' in height. Her massive dark great coat was rimmed with fur from some sort of predator and it was unbuttoned revealing her distinctive black torso and back armor, bracers, and greaves which had been polished high sheen with the chest plate having located on the right side the distinctive gold and red capital 'I' of the Inquisition. Her iron grey eyes were as remorseless as a Harpoon Shark and her short red hair was in a bun to keep it out of the way. Plus knowing her, for each of the weapons that he could see their was probably at least two that he couldn't see. Which considering that he could see the distinctive heavy pistol of the Inquisition secured firmly in it's holster, a broadsword, at least two grenades, and a combat knife. _That_ was sobering thought that right now, probably the most heavily armed person on the entire ship was on the bridge.

"The Coastal Defense warship that intercepted us isn't the _Nueva España_. This just got a whole lot harder Inquisitor, because the _Defensor de la fe_ isn't in on our plan. We have to destroy her, thus there's been a modification to our plan. The _Perro Lobo_ will engage the Coastal Defense forces with the aid of the _Nueva España_ and we will send you and your team ashore in the launch." Mandarin said cooly.

The Inquisitor nodded in agreement. "I agree with your assessment Capitán. It's a shame that the _Defensor de la fe_ must be destroyed but for the continuation of God's will to be done, she has to be sacrificed to the cause." she said.

"I am still going to burn in hell for this Inquisitor, what I am about to order is the murder of a faithful crew who've been caught up in something that they don't understand. I know the Capitán on _Defensor de la fe_. He's a good man and an excellent Capitán, plus he's loyal to the current regime to a fault. But he has a family too, been married for fifteen years and has had three kids. I am going to hate myself for what I have to do." Mandarin replied stiffly, bringing a pair of binoculars up and quickly focused in on the _La Quezon_ class Coastal Battleship.

He felt sorry for the crew that he had with his own words condemned to death, the _La Quezon_ class was no match for a _Venganza_ class Grand Cruiser. It's weapons while they would have no trouble at close range of punching through the armored belt of his ship, those same weapons had to be brought to bear before they could be a threat to his ship.

The warship that was moving to intercept his had a fairly low freeboard and a fairly heavy gun battery, with the main battery being composed of four older twelve-inch guns in two turrets on the ship's centerline, while the double casemate gun decks on each side contained five somewhat newer six-and-half inch guns, mounted in broadside positions across the main deck for both sides was seven 22-pounder rapid-fire guns for defense against torpedo boats, and finally in the fighting tops, on the bridge wings and upper decks were rapid-firing 3-pounder and 1.1in guns as well as Union of Homes made .30-caliber MGs. The ship a member of the _La Quezon_ class, was among the last class of warships in use within the Holy Spanish Imperium that burned coal for fuel; thus the warship threw sparks from her two funnels.

The short stout ship didn't deserve what was about to happen. But it had to be done. "What's the range?" he asked into the speaking tube to the fire control platform.

" _Range is two thousand seven hundred meters, she's starting to angle to come alongside, sir._ " The gunnery officer replied.

"Best guess as to the range when she comes alongside?" Mandarin asked before looking for Inquisitor and realizing that she had already left, probably to assemble her team for the insertion.

" _Best guess is around twelve hundred meters, sir._ " The gunnery officer said.

"Acknowledged, I want every other casemate gun firing armor-piercing the others firing common projectiles." Mandarin ordered and then he stood and went to the bridge wing, ready to take the _Perro Lobo_ into battle.

The minutes seemed to drag on for hours as the _Defensor de la fe_ approached. Thanks to the moonlit sky he could see the boarding party assembling, getting ready for a top to bottom search of his ship. Something that wasn't going to happen on his watch.

Finally the moment came, Mandarin muttered a brief prayer for the crew and then gave the word. "Nine pounders commence firing!" he barked.

The orders were quickly relayed and then the sound he had been dreading ever since they had spotted the _Defensor de la fe_ sounded. With a sharp, ear-grating _brangaga_ , the 9-pounder commence firing buzzer went off, an instant later heavy rapid-fire booms ripped through the air as the guns commenced firing. Tracers arched from the _Perro Lobo_ to the _Defensor de la fe_.

The shells ripped into the square bridge, pilothouse, charthouse, and main deck of the _Defensor de la fe_ , fire blossoming into existence as the semi armor-piercing shells ripped through armor and steel then exploded. In a matter of moments the entire boarding party had been reduced to a mangled corpses and pilothouse and bridge was engulfed in flames. The nines continued their unrelenting fulsidlade of fire into the Coastal Battleship, sweeping fire across the ship's fighting tops, decks, and superstructure.

Then with a buzzing _jrangalana_ the salvo buzzer for the 6.5-inch guns rang and a moment later the guns discharged vomiting flame and smoke. The nine pounders didn't have a chance of penetrating even the upper armor-belt or the armor deck of a _La Quezon_ class Coastal Battleship, but the 6.5-inch guns were another story entirely.

Even from twelve hundred meters away, the target (strange how it had suddenly become the target) shook visibly under the hammering impacts, wounds appeared seemingly from thin air as the shells plowed through the armor and steel with ease. Detonations bloomed into life as brief balls of flame as HE shells splashed across the ship's armor and superstructure. But the AP shells plowed right through the armor like it wasn't their and when they detonated strobing flashes of flame appeared within the hostile warship.

Almost immediately a secondary explosion tore through the hull as something cooked off with violent force and shattered steel that was already barely hanging on to the frame was thrown away with violent force. The nines were continuing their relentless barrage when suddenly the secondary battery salvo buzzer rang again and the guns rippled out a sharp coordinated broadside.

This time the damage was far more severe, twelve shells ripped through the air and twelve shells plowed through armor before exploding. Flashes erupted deep inside the ship and the casemate facing them blew itself apart in terrific fashion as the ready lockers went up like dominios. Flames were now engulfing the _Defensor de la fe_ and the ship staggered and tried to accelerate away from the _Perro Lobo_ but it was now far too late for the effectively crippled Coastal Battleship to even runaway from the warship that had crippled her.

The secondary battery salvo buzzer rang again and the casemate guns barked their fury. Several shells tore through the horrifically comprised waterline belt and citadel bulkheads before exploding. Burning coal was flung into air, their fiery trails cutting interesting paths through the night sky while with a heaving _whoosh_ a boiler exploded with tremendous force, steam roared out of the tremendous gaping wound in her casemate and the ship lost speed.

The nines had finally ceased bombarding the target with SAP rounds as they couldn't see anything worth shooting. Plus it wouldn't matter, if anyone was still alive onboard the _Defensor de la fe_ then it would be a miracle delivered by God himself.

The secondary battery salvo buzzer rang again and the guns that could bear barked their fury. The shells plunged deep into the warship once again and exploded, throwing burning coal upwards. But that spectacle wasn't the one that grabbed everyone's attention, no. It was the detonation of the secondary battery magazines, the entire ship erupted like a volcano. Flame and smoke roared hundreds if not thousands of feet into the air, with debris getting thrown violently in all directions as an explosion of immense proportions ripped the warship in half.

"Ahead two-thirds, new course 330, action stations!" Mandarin roared as the mangled remains of the _Defensor de la fe_ slipped beneath the waves. Already in the far distance, search lights were snapping on and the Quick Reaction Force was in the process of either casting off all lines, releasing their anchors, or were beginning to advance into the harbor towards his warship. Ready to destroy it, but unfortunately for them. They were _way_ out of their weight division, the five _La Quezon_ class Coastal Battleships that made up the QRF would easily be able to destroy his old command, a _Continuar_ class Light Cruiser with ease.

But a _Venganza_ class Grand Cruiser was whole other matter entirely. Superior armor, superior firepower, superior fire control systems, plus she was faster and more maneuverable than the ships moving to engage her. To get out of this unscathed he would have to leverage his advantages of which he had plenty.

The klaxon wailed and the ship came to life, rumbling under his feet as she accelerated slowly towards fifteen knots and turned sluggishly. A minute and a half later, he heard all stations were manned and then he grinned. Poor bastards wouldn't know what was about to hit them. "All turrets will track the lead ship, what's the range?" Mandarin asked.

" _Current range is fifteen thousand meters, those warships can hit us from this range but they'll need to get much closer to have a chance of penetrating._ " came the reply. At the same time the massive forward gunhouse traversed, it's tremendous gun tubes slowly elevating. Within the massive construct, men worked tirelessly to get the guns ready for firing. Shells and powder were hoisted up from the magazines deep within the ship to the gunhouses, first the projectile followed by the powder bags.

"Is there any risk of us hitting city?" Mandarin asked.

" _Negative, their isn't._ "

"Good, then commence firing at your discretion."

A moment later with a clattering ring, the primary battery salvo buzzer rang.

* * *

Inquisitor Tareza Tellas, swiftly climbed the ladder from the Launch to the pier. Her Heavy Pistol firmly secured in her the grasp of her left hand, she swept the dock and spotting no hostiles signalled for the others in her squad to come up. They quickly ascended to the top of the pier as well, Devil Slayers were going to be the absolute elite of the reborn Holy Dominion when it was reinstated as a state more so than even the Blood Drinkers.

"Move up!" she ordered and they silently moved forward like ghosts. Quickly leaving the pier behind, they ran along the wharves. Dashing across deserted streets and sidewalks before finding their first objective in a warehouse contained within was the transportation that had been stashed their specifically for the coup. It was an aggressive looking six-wheeled infantry carrier, the Devil Slayer strike team moved inside and secured the vehicle. Just before the inquisitor climbed into the passenger seat, the night was briefly turned to day as the _Perro Lobo_ salvoed her big guns in sequence one after the other, flame rippling down the warship's length. It was silent for several seconds and then the noise of the reports washed over them like thunder in the distance. Seconds later, splashes that were nearly impossible to make out from this range without binoculars erupted among the advancing QRF and one of the _La Quezon_ class Coastal Battleships had an immense fireball erupt from it's form, pieces of burning coal and probably pieces of steel getting thrown in all directions.

She smiled and knew that Capitán Mandarin had the naval side of things well in hand. She then climbed into the vehicle and closed the door, taking that as a signal the driver cranked the engine. The infantry carrier roared into life and she grinned at the sound, with their transportation secured they could now move to their primary objective.

"Teniente, how far are we from the Chancellor's Palace?" The Inquisitor asked, referring to the large building on the southern edge of downtown where the current Chancellor and his family as well as the cabinet and their families lived plus conducted business. It was critical that all members of both groups get wiped out otherwise they could have trouble brew.

"Forty kilometers Inquisitor. I know the emergency drills for the Chancellor, the Cabinet, and their families by heart. Right now they have likely been roused from their sleep and moved to a secure bunker located in the basement sublevel five. This bunker is well secured, hermetically sealed and it's immune to all but the heaviest of ordnance. Plus there's enough food and water stored their for the select few guards, all of the various government heads, and their families for the better part of a month. Lastly there are only three ways in or out of the bunker. The first is via a pair of elevators that go directly to a entrance hall that leads to the bunker, the second is a pair of emergency stairwells that goes to the same place but you have a crap ton of stairs to climb, and the third is a vehicle bay that's used in case the bunker is comprised and the government needs to be evacuated." Teniente Jose Fonseca said in his colorful accent.

"How do we breach the bunker then?" The Inquisitor asked in a sour tone.

"Thing is that it takes time, easily at least ten minutes even on a good day. Not to mention, they don't know it but the elevators have been sabotaged and the stairwells made useless. Thus they are panicking right now and are likely switching to plan B in order to get them out of the city but that contingency is so rarely practiced that it's going to be hard as hell to execute." Fonseca replied.

"Right, good to know and thus while we are somewhat on a clock it's something we can handle. Move out." The Inquisitor ordered sharply.

"With pleasure, Inquisitor." With the slightest of squeaks, the driver released the brake and the vehicle gilded backward. With effortless ease the Tiniente backed the infantry carrier out of the warehouse and onto the road that ran in front of it. Then he opened the throttle and popped the clutch, effortlessly shifting the beast into 1st gear.

The vehicle roared like a Greater Dragon as it lunged forward, quickly maneuvering through the streets. The vehicle moved through the relatively light traffic of the night and deftly evaded the emergency vehicles that were scrambling. While the sounds of combat still emanated from the harbor, light and sound was tearing the air apart.

They came to a screeching halt just a block away from the Chancellor's Palace. "Everyone out, we're marching it from here. When we get to the Palace, we'll commence the operation on my signal." Tareza said before dismounting from the infantry carrier, leaving her SMG behind mainly because the only reason she had brought it was in case something went wrong before the operation could even begin and thus needed the firepower it would provide.

She calmly unholstered her heavy pistol and after checking it held it at the ready. Then she advanced, her Devil Slayer strike team moving behind her like ghosts. They came upon the gate to the Palace and despite herself the Inquisitor allowed herself to smile slightly. Only five guards, they looked nervous but weren't doing regular patrols and the like, which meant that they were likely waiting for something. But thanks to the lack of their patrols and attentiveness it would be their undoing.

"On my mark take them." The Inquisitor ordered before signalling for her troops to disperse, unholstering her pistol and now checking to see if it was loaded. Satisfied she flicked the safety off and worked the slide, chambering a massive bullet. Then she waited for her compatriots to get into position so that they could take the shots they needed. Once confident of that her weapon came up and settled itself on the guard who appeared to be the leader.

For the briefest of moments, the consequences of the events that would unfold today briefly flashed across Tareza's mind but she quickly dismissed the notion. This was the will of the Lord after all, she pulled the trigger and uneasiness of the night was shattered as the pistol roared righteous fury amid an incredible pulse of flame as the weapon discharged.

Her target's head detonated in an explosion of blood, brain matter, and bone. Dropping lifeless to the cobblestone pedestrian that lined the roadway. His companions cried out in surprise but before they could get much farther than that, with a series of staccato pops the rifles that the Devil Slayers used fired thundering three-round bursts. The other guards dropped like puppets with their strings cut, hitting the ground with a thud.

"Advance!" She roared, sprinting across the street and to the broad gate that marked the entrance to the palace. Her team forming up behind her, without a sound they slipped through the gate and then dashed from shadow to shadow. Staying out of view of the now alerted guards.

Shots sounded and some of the guards dropped as bullets ripped through them, some were killed instantly or close too it. Others hit the pavement screaming and writhing in pain. The last three didn't however, they made it to cover and retaliated with fire of their own. But unlike the Devil Slayers who were keeping a relatively level head in the firefight, the three survivors were flushed with panic and were returning fire poorly, to say the least.

Tareza's pistol boomed again and a guard toppled backwards with a gurgled scream as the round sliced through his neck, sending crimson fluid splattering outwards. He hit the ground and shortly afterwards went still.

"¡Granada fuera!" Someone to her left shouted and a cylindrical object flew through, it landed near where the other two guards were hiding with a metallic clatter. One broke cover and attempted to get to a different piece of cover.

He didn't make it, a rifle barked it's foul breath and one side of his head exploded outward in a violent spray of red, white, and grey. Splattering the stone wall behind him in a unique splash of color. The corpse tumbled to the ground and skidded across the stone for a short distance before stopping.

An instant later the grenade detonated with a hurricane roar and it tossed the shattered bloody remains of the last Guardsman several meters before it came to a tumbling halt. Blood oozing from dozens upon dozens of wounds from the shrapnel that the explosive device had unleashed.

"Into the Palace, remember it's the Lord's will for the Imperium to be brought to ruin! Kill all inside!" The Inquisitor barked and as one, the Devil Slayers rushed the door, a swift kick opened the main entrance to the Palace and gunfire roared out of the breach.

Wordlessly a plan was formed and several grenades flew through the open doorway and into the entrance hall beyond. Each one detonated with a great thunderclap and a chorus of screams rose up from the defenders inside. The last grenade to go flying however had a totally different casing and instead of detonating into a ball of thunder and shrapnel this detonated with blinding flash and a enormous bang.

That was the signal, the Devil Slayers led by their Inquisitor stormed inside. Screams and gunfire resounded through the Palace as they systematically swept the building, shooting anyone who wasn't one of them. The killing was wanton and absolute, within the hour the entire Imperium government was wiped out or so they thought.


	4. Arrival

**AN: Hello all of you delightful readers, as I am sure you've noticed that I've deleted most of the chapters in this story. That's to avoid confusion as the rewrite has it's plot unfold with what's happening.**

 **Review replies:**

 **Guest: First off, new characters are being introduced this time around as well old characters being introduced in a new way.**

 **Thus without further ado let's begin.**

* * *

Walker stood alone on a stone bridge, a cold breeze blew; the harsh wind tearing through her uniform like it wasn't even their while a stout fog obscured her vision. Worse her body ached and something felt off about her balance while the grip on her weapon was unsteady while the weapon itself gleamed with blood from the enemy warriors that she had slew. The entire bridge shook violently and she could tell something was coming, something _powerful_ , she took a deep breath and tightened her grip on her weapon.

Slowly like the demon it was, the thing emerged from the fog. It stood at least six feet tall, towering over her. It's form was wrapped in shadows and draped in a cloak of some kind. Despite that it, there was also the gleam of metal that shone brightly. Plate mail armor protected this demon from harm, she could penetrate that armor but she would have to be careful about it. A blood-chilling grin slowly spread across the demon's face, a grin that was composed of wickedly sharp fangs and then it branded her weapon a lethal double-ended axe with a vicious serrations along the cutting edge.

"Come quietly brave one and your death will be quick painless end." The _thing_ intoned in a serine voice.

Walker shook herself and shot daggers at the beast, her eyes blazing with righteous fury. She brandished her weapon, bringing it to the ready position. She glanced over her shoulder at the city in the far distance. An immense tree in its center, a beacon of hope and freedom. She then turned to face the demon and her gaze hardened, a small laugh escaping from her lips. "I am not going to roll over and accept my death like a good dog! Do you seriously think that I am going to allow you to slaughter the inhabitants of the city behind me? I think not, _en garde_ foul demon!" She snarled before lunging, her Saber blurring forward.

"I was hoping you would say that." The demon said before effortlessly parrying the saber strike with the flat of her axe and then retaliating with a sweeping strike that would tear in half at the beginning of the floating ribs.

Walker ducked, the lethal axe just barely missing her helmet. She lunged forward, stabbing upwards hoping to disembowel her opponent. But the blade struck smooth plating just above where the strike should've connected, the gap in-between the horizontal armor plates. Cursing, she spun out of the way as the demon made an attempt to grab her by the neck and then leaped away before a follow-up blow, not from the axe but from a fist that would've connected.

Snarling in agitation, the demon launched it's offensive in earnest at her, but Walker seemed to be blessed. She effortlessly wove through the furious strikes, seemingly untouchable but her own strikes were ineffective. It was just too difficult a target to hit accurately, she would have to change her strategy.

That's when she got lucky, an upward slash slipped through the plates and her blade bit into flesh for the first time. An enraged howl ripped away from her opponent's throat and the axe swung. Walker saw the strike, yanked out her sword and ducked. Then she had to resist the urge to cower under the glare the demon was now giving her.

"Guess the gloves are now coming off. I am going to enjoy watching your squirm in agony as your life flees from you." The monster snarled as it dropped it's lethal axe and out came a lethal looking _Tachi_ , it's blade gleaming. "My turn." the Demon said before striking.

Walker barely managed to deflect the strike, the flurry of rapid-fire blows that came at her afterward was beyond belief. Each time her saber barely managed to deflect the blow, swearing the brave little _Wickes_ began ducking and dodging along with parrying. But her opponent was vastly superior in all ways, she had a massive reach and power advantage, plus she was quicker than her massive size would lead many to believe. She tried to step inside her opponent's stance when it appeared to be a little too wide.

It was a trap.

Even as Walker struck out and with an expertly placed strike and then slashed, carving open part of the demon's belly. It's other hand lashed out and blinding pain exploded as a _Tantō_ came out of nowhere and buried itself between the first and third false ribs, yanked out and then reburied into her flesh this time between the first false rib and the thirteenth true rib. She screamed as the pain encompassed her very being, blood poured in thick currents from the wounds.

"Lost your will to fight?" The demon said as it lashed out with it's sword. It carved a gash in her torso, not deep but painful. The pain was agonizing, Walker shrieked in pain and then the _Tantō_ slashed in again and she barely managed to deflect the blow. But then the dagger-esque weapon slashed at her again, carving a gash down her front between her fifth and seventh true ribs. She fell to her hands and knees, her saber clattering to the cold unfeeling stone.

"Pathetic, as much as I am tempted to end you here. I am going to wait so you can hear the sounds of your failure and then I'll be back to take your head." The Demon snarled at her before beginning to head towards the city, pausing to scoop up her axe.

There was a sound of arrow flying, it shot through the darkness… and missed by the narrowest of margins. The Demon pivoted in the direction that the arrow had come from and then shrugged before beginning to continue her inexorable march towards the city.

Then with a powerful scream of fury, another figure darted into view. A spear leveled at her opponent, the Demon pivoted. Her eyes widening in fear, she swung wildly but the strike missed and the spear buried itself into the demon. The small figure holding the spear then cried out as the _Tantō_ plunged into the base of her neck at the shoulders, but there was a steely determination was in her eyes. "Go rot in hell you _bitch_." She snarled before one of her hands shot to the inside of her jacket and clamped down on something.

The two figures vanished in a ball of yellow-orange flame and smoke. The sound of the explosion was beyond description as the shockwave plucked Walker up as if she weighed nothing and sent her bouncing backwards for easily a dozen yards. The flames and smoke from the blast blocked the demon from sight… but it was still alive! She could hear it's enraged roars of pain!

But if it was as wounded as she thought it was, then she could kill it! Gritting her teeth and ignoring the pain, she grabbed her saber and struggled to her feet. She took a deep breath and moved forward as fast as she could, the demon materialized out of the smoke and fog.

It was battered and bloodied but obviously still alive, it's axe was shattered and the sword was nowhere to be seen. While it's armor was in shattered ruins, leaving just her clothes underneath. It heard her steps and turned to face her, just as she lunged forward. The thing let out a gasp of shock as Walker buried her saber all the way to the hilt in its gut, she then slashed it horizontally, splitting it's belly open and causing a howl of pain.

Walker yanked her saber out and plunged her blade into its chest. It gasped in pain this time, she twisted the blade and had just yanked it out when suddenly the feeling of a thousand white hot needles bloomed to life in her chest. The destroyer glanced down and saw that the Demon had buried it's _Tantō_ right under her sternum, the thing exhaled it's last and it's hand fell off the dagger, leaving it buried in her chest.

But the damage was done, Walker let go of her Saber, which clattered noisy to the ground and then swaying unsteadily turned around. She staggered back towards the city, each successive step was that much harder.

"One...step...in...front...of...the...other,...you...can...do...it...Walker." The destroyer told herself as she staggered towards the city in the far distance. Each step seemed to be harder than the last one and her limbs were getting heavier it seemed, while darkness was flitting at the edges of her vision, her own eyelids feeling heavy.

Without warning her legs collapsed and she fell to the ground, pain exploding across her body as she hit the stone.

She screamed, but the sound was distant. Strangely muffled. As a creeping cold played into her chest and limbs, feeling slowly disappearing. Breathing became harder and harder with each passing moment. She tried to move but couldn't her strength was gone and was it just her or was her vision getting darker? With a start, she realized that it was indeed getting darker. Light flared across the horizon as dawn broke, the warmth of the sun kissed her face. A single tear carved a track down as her vision went out completely.

* * *

Walker awoke with a start, the sheen of a cold sweat dappling her forehead, she sat up and looked around. She sighed, that damned nightmare again, the one that she had at least once a week ever since her summoning.

The _Wickes_ class had long since deciphered what the nightmare was about. It was about the Battle of Baalkpan and to be specific her duel with the battlecruiser Amagi. As well as everything that had ridden upon her duel and her winning against the capital ship.

She had won, but it had cost her so much. God, it had cost her much. She had actually sank after the battle in the refit basin, sure she was eventually refloated and went on to do a great many things afterward. But sadly some wounds never heal, that was true with her. That battle had ripped away the one true sister that she ever had on this alternate world, sure _Ellie_ and her sisters were practically copies of her, but they were only half-sisters. Separated by a whole world and a quarter century, but even though they had been only half-sisters she loved them as if they were true sisters.

She went to climb out of the cot she was in when a hand clamped down on her shoulder. Walker glanced over her shoulder and grimaced at the sight of Mutsuki who looked surprised and shocked as well as on the verge of tears.

 _Oh hell._ Walker thought as she looked the Japanese destroyer in the eyes and confirmed her fears. "Goddamnit." she muttered.

"You saw it?" she asked.

Mutsuki nodded briskly.

 _Was afraid of that, it's the one aspect of snuggling up with my DesDiv mates that's sort of creepy but helpful was that whole shared dreams thing. It's a plus for helping with nightmares but if you aren't expecting for it to be something that's really nasty. It can be quite an emotional shock._ She thought bitterly as pity for what the name ship of the _Mutsuki_ class had likely seen built up within her.

"Sorry about that, not all of my battles went well. Baalkpan was the worst, I lost my only true sister on this world as well as a cousin, I sank in the action and even though I was raised, repaired, and returned to service. It still left it's marks on me." She said, pulling up her flannel shirt and then gesturing to a portion of her chest, to be specific the oblong scar that represented the 10-incher that had punched into her hull and she knew that it hadn't been an over-penetration either like the galley hit had been, for the monstrous shell had detonated within her hull, mangling her below decks.

Mutsuki blinked in surprise at the scar, it was rare for summoned Kanmusu to have such things. Only if the ship survived the battle in which she got that damage and the event during which she took that damage was major enough would it leave a scar.

The _Wickes_ class dropped her shirt and then put a reassuring hand on Mutsuki. She looked back at Walker and then drew her into a tight hug. "Your so brave, I can't imagine engaging a capital ship without torpedoes. It must have been terrifying." she said after releasing the hug.

"It was terrifying, that damn Battlecruiser was a good forty-five times my displacement and I couldn't hope to sink her with my guns alone. I just consider myself lucky to see the dawn break after that horrific battle which lasted an entire day and night, even then I barely managed to stay afloat long enough to see that." Walker paused and took a deep breath. "When I felt my hull it bottom with a shuddering _thump_ , I thought that it was the end of the road despite having a good run while it lasted. But, apparently it was God's will or maybe the will of the Maker of All Things for me to not die. For one day, the water level in the basin began to drop slowly but noticeably, eventually draining completely but instead of being scraped like I thought was going to happen. The opposite occurred, I was repaired and refloated." she finished.

Mutsuki looked thoughtful for a moment before asking Walker a question she didn't really expect. "What happened after you were refloated and repaired?"

Walker took a moment to think before answering. "At first I thought I was going to be headed west in order to take the fight to the Grik. But that didn't happen, I went east. But in order to explain why I went east, you got to back up to before the Battle of Baalkpan even began." She said.

Mutsuki looked surprised at Walker who giggled quietly. "It's complicated to explain, make for a good novel if you ask me." she said.

Before she could respond however, Mahan poked her head into the wardroom. "Morning sleeping beauties." she said in a sing-song voice.

Walker bolted to her feet in an instant. "You know I don't like you calling me that Mahan!" she barked, sounding a little upset.

Mahan just grinned in response and Walker sighed. "Alright, what is it?" the younger _Wickes_ class asked.

"We're about two hours out from Baalkpan in case you're wondering. According to the Captain Shaan we'll be among the last ones off along with anyone whose interacted with us." Mahan replied.

"Great, late breakfast then." Walker grunted in dismay. Despite being only Destroyer Kanmusu, they could still pack away quite a bit of food in one sitting. But it was something Walker could deal with, she'd been extremely low on fuel before and had during her past life runout of fuel once.

Mahan nodded in agreement and Mutsuki scowled.

"Any idea who the minder is going to be?" Mutsuki asked.

"Not really." the older _Wickes_ replied.

"That's not helpful." Walker said and Mahan pouted.

* * *

 _Baalkpan_

The Great Hall of Baalkpan had changed drastically over the decades, but it was still recognizable for the immense Galla Tree that been a central part of the Hall had only grown larger while the Great Hall had expanded some more, but such was how things progressed.

Dennis Silva was dressed in his immaculate whites, about to have an interesting discussion with both the Minister of the Navy and the Minister of Intelligence. At least the meeting also didn't involve the High Chief of the American Clan, Captain Reddy; their was already a ton of high-brass in the room. Sitting next to him was Yūdachi, she was currently reading a book.

The Secretary suddenly looked up as if something had happened. "They'll see you now Mr. Silva."

With a sigh, the big man stood up and walked inside the meeting hall. If he was remembering correctly, the current Minister of the Navy was a Fil-pin Lands born Lemurian named Karik-kenn. Before being promoted and eventually becoming Minister of the Navy, he had been a Destroyerman for his entire career and had been an engineer too. Which meant that he somewhat knew what Silva was dealing with, in all honesty that was something interesting.

It was honestly the Madam Minister of Intelligence Aria Taylor, that he was worried about. She was a human, hailing from Aryaal if he remembered correctly. As ruthless as a Flasher Fish too, considering what he wanted to get done the biggest problem would be convincing her so that he could get things done.

"Chief Gunner's Mate 1st Class Dennis Silva reporting, sirs." he said, coming to firm attention.

"At ease Mr. Silva." Karik replied calmly. "Please have a seat, we have a lot to discuss."

As he sat down, he knew that was true, he had sent some requisition forms up the chain for some basic stuff and next thing he knew, he was getting called to a meeting to discuss things.

"So, I think we should address what we're going to do with the five or so "ship girls" under our command. Any suggestions?" Karik asked.

Silva already had an answer and knew that it was something that Karik probably wouldn't like. "I was thinking we officially form a command to lump them in. Give it a CO and a nice secluded location for it to operate from." he stated.

Karik blinked in surprise and then his expression turned thoughtful. "I think thaat would work, there's a number of islands up in the Sulu Island Chain, if I am right one of them, Jolo I believe, is an emergency landing zone for flights going between Baalkpan and Maa-ni-la, has minor yard capaacity as well." he said.

"That's what I was thinking, we need a place that's secluded and out of the way. But who would command it? Not me obviously besides the fact that I am not an officer but also because I am not as young as I used to be, I mean I am pretty good at keeping Yūdachi from doing something stupid but considering that soon we'll have four more to deal with. It's something I can handle, but five is probably my limit at to what I can successfully wrangle. Not to mention we'll have to get some additional support on this in order to get some productivity out of this." Silva said looking thoughtful.

"Additional support how?" Aria asked.

"I was thinking maybe some modern small arms training, Marine hand-to-hand combat exercises, maybe even some sword training. As well as possibly a class on the history and geography around here." Silva said shrugging.

"Thaat would work, I can imagine thaat Waa-kur and Mahaan might be able to help with the history side of things. At least regarding the Grik War an' part of the Holy Dominion War, got to remember Waa-kur was practically worn out after the end of the Wars an' we had kept her in service really for sentimental reasons thaat is until with the exception of her number four boiler, the others just crapped out on us an' forced us to retire her. Mahaan's a different matter entirely." Karik said with a sigh.

"Why would Mahan be different?" Aria asked, sounding confused.

"Because Mahan had a complicated history Madam Minister. Mahan as a _Wickes_ class ceased to exist during the Battle of Baalkpan when she had the load of depth charges go off after she rammed _Amagi_. Sure she got fished up and rebuilt afterwards but I talked with Brister and he said that Mahan was _different_ after her rebuild. So does the Mahan we got know _anything_ about the events after Baalkpan? I have a suspicion that she won't, but she would be able to provide a unique perspective on the Battle of Baalkpan." Silva replied.

"Goddaamn, never even _thought_ of that." Karik growled angrily.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to Minister and if that truly is the case. Then, well it'll be informational for Mahan too." Silva said looking thoughtful.

"Now is their anything we gotta worry about?" Karik asked.

"A situation we are keeping an eye on has occurred in the west, there's been a coup in the Holy Spanish Imperium." Aria said.

Silva paled. "Shit, if I remember right we never got all of the Blood Cardinals at the end of the conflict with the Dominion. Think this could be their work?" he asked.

"That's what we are thinking, thing is this was extremely well planned. The coup started when one of their big Grand Cruisers sauntered into the harbor of the capital unannounced and then when it was intercepted by an Imperium Coastal Battleship, it without fanfare blew the thing straight hell. In the confusion, a strike team composed of elite forces attacked the Chancellor's Palace, near as we can figure they were successful in killing the Chancellor and likely most of his cabinet as well as their families." Aria said.

Silva's expression turned shocked, this was something he hadn't been expecting at all! This was likely going to lead to a series of events that would change the world as he knew it. "How's the New United States and the Empire of the New Britain Isles reacting?" he asked.

"The New United States has put their entire military on alert and are keeping a close eye on what the Imperium does but they've also said that if they declare war on us or the Empire, that they'll declare war in kind. Ditto for the Empire of the New Britain Isles, we still got no word on what the Republic of Real People, Shougate of Yokohama, Celestial Kingdom, and the Mediterranean Dominion are reacting to this turn of events." Aria said and Silva sighed.

"Not surprised but Madam Minister do you think war is really on the horizon?" The big man asked.

"I wouldn't be surprised, it's a known fact that the Holy Dominion was out for domination of the entire world. Question is where the hell would they strike first?" Silva asked.

Aria made a sour sound. "That's the hard part, it's just about a fifty-fifty split between the Empire of the New British Isles and the New United States. It'll be very much a pain in the ass to send support to the New United States although it shouldn't be that bad sending support if they strike the Empire of the New British Isles. Although in all honesty, I am worried about our colony of San Diego; it doesn't have much in terms of defenses." she said.

"How long do we got until you think the new government will make its move?" Silva asked.

"Worst case scenario is that it happens by the end of the year or even before that. Best case is that it happens at least two years from now because at least then we'd be ready. But given our god awful luck that we have regarding wars, we can assume that it'll be around the turn of the year." Aria said.

"Right, so think it'll work with getting this command involving the shipgirls setup on Jolo?" Silva asked.

Karik nodded. "It'll be doable, Jolo is a big island. There's two bays on the south side of the island which means it's protected from most storms, one bay is already in use for the emergency landing zone an' the other bay is used by the Cutter Service." he said.

"Don't think they'll be too happy about us basically stealing one of their bases." Silva mused.

"They'll have to relocate it to the airfield an' to be frank thaat's a better place for it." Karik said looking thoughtful.

Silva glanced at his Republic of Real People made wristwatch, he'd bought the thing back in the 'eighties and it had served him dutifully ever since. "Madam Minister and Mister Minister, the _Naga_ is slated to arrive within forty minutes and if I am going to make it in time, I got to get going." Silva said and Karik blinked surprise before glancing at the Grandfather Clock that was nestled along one wall.

"Seems so." Karik agreed.

"Understandable, but your going to have to wait for them to get debriefed but you'll be allowed onboard at the sametime as my intelligence analysts. If you want, you can take Yuudachi as well." Aria said.

Silva nodded in understanding. "Thank you Madam Minister." he said.

"Right, I'll start to look at candidates for this thing. In the meantime, your dismissed Mr. Silva." Karik said

Silva stood up saluted and once the two ministers returned it. Walked out of the room, Yūdachi was their still reading her book. "Come on Yūdachi, let's go." he said.

The former Japanese Destroyer stood up and quickly followed behind him. "So how did it go, poi?" she asked.

"Pretty good. Soon we're probably going to be relocating to an island in the Sulu Sea area, which is good. We're all going to be put into our own command at some point in the future but right now we got to get down to the navy docks, the _Naga_ is coming in and we're going to meet someone onboard her when she arrives." Silva replied.

"Who, poi?" Yūdachi asked eagerly.

"It's something of a surprise." Silva said.

* * *

Walker was peering out the porthole as the _Naga_ sliced proudly towards the entrance of Baalkpan Bay, the immense multi-tiered steel and concrete reinforced, heavy stone, wood, earth fortress that was Fort Atkinson stood as a proud guardian to the entrance of bay, it's numerous rifled breech loaders could ruin just about anyone's day. On the opposite shore, standing as a proud sentinel and companion to Fort Atkinson was Fort Neccerra. While deeper in Baalkpan Bay, on the point that jutted outwards and provided protection for the naval base that was on the shore opposite from the city of Baalkpan stood the smallest of the three main fortresses, Fort Point.

Just as the _Naga_ began to enter Baalkpan Bay, passing under the immense guns of the two guardians at the bay's mouth. A memory tickled the back of Walker's mind and then her eyes widened as she realized what she had forgotten. She turned and thankfully both Mutsuki and Fubuki was their. "I just remembered something!" she said.

"What?" Fubuki asked.

"Under the Constitution of the Union of Homes. The Navy is recognized as it's own Clan or basically nation as such it's normal for Navy ships to fire salutes when they enter port. Twenty-one gun salutes." Walker said.

Before either Mutsuki or Fubuki could respond, their was the distinctive _jangrangla_ of the ship's salvo buzzer ringing. Moments later the _Naga_ 's six 5-in/50-caliber Mark 18 Naval Guns vomited flame and smoke as the powder cases that had been rammed in moments before were ignited. Several seconds later the powerful guns slammed out another perfect salvo thanks to amazing gyroscope that was part of her fire control system. This salvo was followed by a third salvo that slammed out from the _Naga_ 's guns, this was followed up by the forward three guns barking out another salvo.

A full Twenty-one gun salute.

 _Three...two...one….now_ Walker thought in her head and then there was rolling rumble like thunder in the distance muffled by both distance and wind, but it wasn't thunder but instead it was multiple gun reports right after the other at least a dozen but the number was likely much higher. The sound made her grin as the immense guns of Forts Atkinson, Nerracca, and Hammer returned the salutes that the _Naga_ had just delivered.

She turned around and saw that both Fubuki and Mutsuki as well as Mahan were looking stunned at not only the precision of the salvoes but also the quickness at which the salute had been returned. "Impressive right?" she asked.

"How many guns do you think fired?" Mutsuki asked after popping her ears.

Walker hummed in thought. "That was probably a solid thirty guns returning the salute at least." she said.

Both Fubuki and Mutsuki started in surprise and Mahan blinked it. "That many guns? Isn't that overkill for just a single destroyer returning home from a patrol?" Mutsuki asked.

Walker laughed out loud. "You should've seen the number of guns that replied to my twenty-one gun salute on April 16th, 1944 when I steamed into this very bay, having spent something like six or seven months in the east, sorting out things with the Empire of the New British Isles and getting into a couple of scrapes as well. The response was incredible, over _seventy_ great guns responded in kind. It was good to be back in my homeport." she said.

The jaws for the other three Kanmusu dropped. "S-s-seventy?!" Fubuki spluttered shocked.

"Yep, at least seventy. Thing is, back at that time production for 4in/50 caliber naval guns had just _begun_ and those weapons were slated for use on the new build _Wickes_ class Destroyers that were under construction. Plus the guys and gals in the Ministry of Experimental Ordnance hadn't even thought about putting the old 3-incher on a field carriage and making it a direct fire field gun yet. Let alone a modern indirect fire artillery piece." Walker replied shrugging.

"Damn, must have been impressive to see." Mahan remarked.

Walker grinned in response. "It was very impressive to see and hear, no doubt about it." she said.

Fubuki sat down in a chair. "I still can't believe everything that's happened over the last couple of days. Between the Abyssal infantry attack on Surabaya which we're lucky to have escaped with our lives, to the running naval battle with those Abyssal Heavy Cruisers, to the torpedo attack on the Battleship Water Demon, to that weird Squall, that aquatic dinosaur, to well everything else that's occurred. It's just weird, you know?" Fubuki asked.

Walker nodded. "I felt the exact same way after I transitioned. Being chased by Japanese Heavy Cruisers, having blasted past a Japanese Capital Ship attacking with torpedoes and evading planes, that weird squall, followed by well everything after that." she said.

"Me too, although my history here was rather short and it was no near as blessed or special as Walker's was. Nothing just seemed to go right for me, no matter how hard I'd try." Mahan said shaking her head.

Walker went back to the window that was facing Baalkpan. "Guys quick! You want to see something amazing?" She said quickly and Mutsuki as well Fubuki got up and raced to the two other portholes.

Beyond, was an incredible sight. The city of Baalkpan stood, a proud city made of wood, bamboo, stone, and brick. The primary landmark that marked the city skyline however wasn't a skyscraper or a radio antenna, no instead it was the immense _tree_ that dominated the central skyline it stood at least as tall as the immense Grizzly Giant at Mariposa Grove in California back home and was freakishly huge in terms of sheer girth. The lightish grey of the bark along with it's dark green leaves just meshed perfectly with the dark reds and browns of brick work, the stone work of various colors, the rich wood that was stained in warm colors, along with the colorful awnings and stained glass windows. A proud bustling city of at least thirty thousand people.

Something caught Walker's eye though, a titanic broad-beamed shape. She focused on it and her eyes widened as she realized what it was. That immense broad-beamed hull, with the dizzyingly high freeboard eliminated the majority of the options with what it could be, the options were either a Roll-on/Roll-off freighter and troop transport, a Self-Propelled Dry Dock, a Grik War era Aircraft Carrier, and the last one was a Lemurian Home.

But which one _was_ it? She squinted and started in surprise as she finally spotted a defining feature. An _immense_ tripod mast with what appeared to be a pagoda mast being bracketed by it, that meant this was a Lemurian Home. The shining grey paint stood out proudly, but Walker began to look for distinctive features, something that would tell her what particular Home she was looking at. They all looked the same visually, but the paint on the pagodas and to a degree even the tripod masts played a major role in identifying individual Homes.

She had been given the status of Home back just before the Grik War began. It had been a lofty status that she hadn't been expecting considering her age and relative obsolescence not to mention the size difference mainly because Lemurian Homes were just over three times her size. But, it had made her feel welcome, particularly considering what she'd been through before that time.

" _Damn_ , that thing is _huge_." Fubuki said in awed tone.

"That is a Lemurian Home, they used to be very common but now not so much. Before the war there was easily several hundred now I doubt that there is more than a hundred." Walker said gazing at it with melancholy visible in her eyes.

"That few?" Mutsuki asked shocked.

"Yeah, but they offer a relatively simple life and they got no engines either. Just Wings and Sweeps." Walker said.

"What the heck are Wings and Sweeps?" Fubuki inquired sounding very confused.

Walker resisted the urge to introduce her palm to her face. "Sorry, Lemurian words. Wings refer to the sails and the Sweeps refer to the Oars. I will admit that when it comes to hunting Gri-kakka, only the Lemurian Homes can do it effectively. Before the war started, the oil from Gri-kakka was prized because it could be used for nearly anything. That changed afterwards but Gri-kakka hunting is difficult because of the Flasher Fish." she said.

"The piranha like tuna?" Mutsuki asked.

"Yeah, that's a good way of explaining it. If you wind up in the water, you'll last anywhere between two to four minutes before the Flashies arrive and tear you to shreds. But if the seas are high, then the Flashies can't sense the splashing of their victims as you can imagine though, it can make rescues a bitch and half." Walker said.

Mutsuki and Fubuki both nodded in response.

Beneath their feet, the _Naga_ shifted under them slightly. Her deck tilting, the thrumming hum of her turbines winding down somewhat. They knew what to expect but Walker did admit that it made her feel more than a little uncomfortable. Regardless it made some sense, the last thing they wanted was to get dropped right into reunions.

It still took for another half-hour for the _Naga_ , with the assistance of tugs to reach the quay and as they tied off, the hearty rumble of the blower died away almost entirely and then it took nearly an hour later before they heard the distinctive sound of shoes on metal as someone tramped down the stairs.

The first person who walked into the room was a Lemurian who was a member of the Ministry of Intelligence, probably leading whoever their minder was going to be through the ship to make sure that they didn't get lost or at the very least turned around while onboard.

The first person through the door however was an immense mountain of a man. His hair was fairly short and he had a couple of noticeable scars on his face and arms. His skin was darkly tanned while his hair and beard had long since faded to mostly grey, there was still some of the original color left a sun-bleached blonde color. He was wearing what appeared to be summer whites. He was wearing a black leather belt that had a holster containing a .45 pistol and a scabbard with a Pattern 1917 Navy Cutlass.

In that moment, for Walker at least. Time froze, she knew this man. Half of the shenanigans that she had gotten up to back home had been because of the crew imprint from him. Back when she'd been a ship, he'd been her heracles and someone who wouldn't move mountains because they were usually easier to just blow them the hell up. "My God, it's Dennis Silva." Walker said quietly before shouting gleefully "Silva!" as she bolted towards the big man.

Silva for his part merely chuckled, braced himself and when Walker embraced him at the run she was at, which rocked him back on his heels, returned it in the process sweeping her off her feet. "You must be Walker." he said with a grin. "You got the Skipper's eyes."

Walker's cheeks flushed and Mahan giggled at the antics of her younger sister with a smile. "I never expected that you would be our minder, Silva." Walker said her voice clearly happy and energetic.

"Neither did I and to be honest I didn't expect to see you like this either." Silva said before he realized something and still holding Walker stepped inside the Wardroom fully and then to the side.

This allowed a new figure to walk into the wardroom and it seemed that time froze for all. Her bright red eyes, combined with her blonde hair with bright red tips. Her red scarf, navy blue shirt, and white skirt. The moment her gaze met Mutsuki and Fubuki, something clicked.

"Mutsuki-chan, Fubuki-chan poi!" The newcomer squealed with delight before running towards her friends.

"Yūdachi-chan!" Mutsuki and Fubuki shouted in reply, doing likewise for their friend.

The three of them came together and embraced each other as if they hadn't seen each other in years, even though it was true that they hadn't seen each other in a longtime. "Watashi wa anata no koko o shinjiru koto ga dekinai, poi!" Yūdachi said in rapid-fire Japanese.

"Dochira mo shinjirarenai!" Fubuki replied, sounding to Walker genuinely _happy_ for the first time since, well Yūdachi had disappeared after that FUBAR op against that Princess and had been declared MIA then later KIA.

"Sore wa zutto nagaku, watashi wa anata ga futatabi anata ni au koto wa kangaenakatta." Mutsuki added in Japanese as well, energetic and happy just like Fubuki was.

"Dōshite anata wa koko ni kimashita ka, poi?" Yūdachi asked.

Walker picked up on the conversation as Silva set her down. "Same way you did, we went through a squall that well felt menacing and mystical with strange lightning pulsing within it and wound up here. For me that was the second time through and it was just as unpleasant for me as it was the first time." She said, shaking her head.

"Don't remind me, that was rather unpleasant." Silva said and the other Kanmusu all nodded.

"I never thought that I would see you again." Mutsuki said as she looked at Yūdachi.

Yūdachi for her part blinked in surprise at that statement before nodding. "I felt the same way, poi. It's hard to deal with the fact that it was impossible for me to return home, poi." she said.

"Not like that, I thought that after you had got cut off from retreating with the rest of the fleet, that I wasn't going to see you again. I thought that this war was dead set on breaking me, first Hayate-san and then Kisaragi-san. Then there was the fact that the Abyssal February Princess looks pretty similar and worse when they compared sound files it was nearly a perfect match. Then there was the op were you were presumed killed." Mutsuki said, tears beginning to carve silent tracks down her face.

"It was rough." Mahan said. "Mutsuki became almost completely combat ineffective for awhile after that op. The admiralty was thinking about pulling her off the frontlines but before that could happen, Paul Jones had her transferred to DESRON 29 and it worked. During the war, DESRON 29 was almost completely wiped out by the Japanese and thus we sort of knew what Mutsuki was dealing with. I mean, she didn't become like she was before that bad op but she improved enough that the matter about her being taken off the frontlines was dropped." she said.

Walker remembered that, it had been a surprising decision but in her mind the correct one. It had put Mutsuki in a unit that was composed of a tight-knit group of sisters that had during WWII been almost completely wiped out and thus they knew what she had been going through.

"Hold on, back up. What the hell is the February Princess?" Silva asked confused.

"It's complicated, but at one point it was probably a _Mutsuki_ class hull. That is until the Abyssals twisted it to the point that at a glance it was impossible to tell what it had been. But their was definitive tells to what had been, the aft turrets in the three and four position, the funnels, pilothouse, mast arrangement, and to a degree the deck arrangement all matched the layout of the _Mutsuki_ class. But the Abyssals had significantly lengthened and widened the hull as well as increasing all aspects of it's armament." Walker said with a shrug but it was clear she was upset.

Silva's expression clouded as he thought about it and then grew sympathetic as he connected the dots and realized what she meant.

"As nice as this is. First we need to disembark from the _Naga_ and get you debriefed." The Ministry of Intelligence Lemurian said, interrupting the reunion.

Walker shot the Lemurian a withering glare that resulted in her flicking her tail from left to right nervously but she nodded. "Let's go guys." she said and the Kanmusu collectively stood up and then Silva sensing the change, motioned towards the hatchway. The Lemurian blinked in response and led them out of the wardroom and then up a stairway as they headed up to the main deck.

An uncertain future had arrived upon them as they disembarked from the _Naga_ and boarded a couple of trucks.


End file.
